How to Play Backgammon: The Ancient Game That Still Captivates Modern Minds

I've been playing backgammon for nearly two decades now, and I still remember the first time someone set up that peculiar board in front of me. Twenty-four triangular points, thirty checkers, and a pair of dice – it looked deceptively simple. But beneath that geometric surface lies one of humanity's most enduring strategic contests, a game that has survived empires, crossed continents, and somehow remains as relevant in our digital age as it was in ancient Mesopotamia.

The beauty of backgammon lies in its perfect balance between luck and skill. Unlike chess, where pure calculation reigns supreme, backgammon forces you to dance with probability. You can't control the dice, but you can control how you respond to them. This fundamental tension creates a game that's simultaneously accessible to beginners and endlessly challenging for experts.

Setting Up Your Battlefield

The backgammon board consists of 24 narrow triangles called points, alternating in color and arranged in four quadrants of six points each. These quadrants are your home board, your outer board, your opponent's home board, and their outer board. A vertical bar called the bar divides the board in half.

Each player starts with 15 checkers of their own color. The traditional setup places two checkers on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point, and five on your 6-point. Your opponent mirrors this arrangement on their side. This starting position isn't arbitrary – it's the result of centuries of refinement, creating immediate strategic tension and multiple paths to victory.

The numbering system might seem counterintuitive at first. Points are numbered from 1 to 24 for each player, with your 1-point being your opponent's 24-point. Your home board contains points 1 through 6, while your outer board holds points 7 through 12. This opposing numbering reflects the game's fundamental nature: you're racing in opposite directions around the same track.

The Basic Mechanics of Movement

Movement in backgammon follows the dice religiously. Roll two dice, and you get two separate moves corresponding to each die's value. Roll a 5 and a 3, and you can move one checker five points and another three points – or move a single checker eight points total, as long as you can legally land on the intermediate point.

Here's where it gets interesting: you can only land on points that are either empty, occupied by your own checkers, or occupied by exactly one enemy checker (called a blot). Land on a blot, and you've made a hit, sending that checker to the bar. Your opponent must re-enter that checker before making any other moves, rolling to land on an open point in your home board.

Doubles amplify everything. Roll double fours, and you get four moves of four points each. It's a moment of pure possibility, often game-changing. I've seen conservative players suddenly unleash aggressive attacks after rolling doubles, and I've watched commanding leads evaporate when an opponent rolls that perfect double six at just the right moment.

The Race and the Fight

Backgammon presents you with two fundamental strategies that constantly intertwine: racing and fighting. The racing game is pure speed – get your checkers around the board and bear them off before your opponent. The fighting game involves creating points (two or more checkers on a single point) to block your opponent's movement and hitting their exposed blots to slow them down.

Most games blend both approaches. You might start with an aggressive blocking game, creating a prime (six consecutive points) that traps your opponent's checkers. But if your dice turn cold or your opponent escapes, you'll need to shift gears and race for the finish. This strategic flexibility separates good players from great ones.

The opening moves set the tone. With a 3-1 opening roll, most experienced players make their 5-point, creating an early anchor in their home board. Roll 6-5, and you'll likely run a back checker from your opponent's 1-point to their 12-point, beginning your escape. These aren't rigid rules – they're patterns that have emerged from millions of games, each tested against the crucible of competition.

Bearing Off: The Final Sprint

Once all your checkers reach your home board, you can begin bearing off – removing them from the board entirely. This phase transforms the game yet again. Suddenly, precision matters more than position. You roll the dice and remove checkers from the corresponding points. Roll a 5, remove a checker from your 5-point. No checker on that point? Make a legal move within your home board instead.

The bearing off race can be deceptively complex. Sometimes it's better to move checkers within your home board rather than bearing off immediately, especially if it leaves fewer checkers exposed to a potential hit. I learned this lesson painfully during a tournament in Boston, watching a sure victory slip away because I bore off too aggressively and left a blot my opponent gleefully sent back to the beginning.

The Doubling Cube: Raising the Stakes

No discussion of backgammon is complete without the doubling cube, that six-sided die marked with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. This isn't about movement – it's about stakes and psychology. At any point before rolling, you can offer to double the stakes of the game. Your opponent must either accept (taking possession of the cube) or decline (conceding the game at the current stakes).

The doubling cube transforms backgammon from a simple race into a complex evaluation of probability and risk. When should you double? When should you accept? These decisions require you to assess not just the current position but the likely flow of the game. A position that's slightly unfavorable might still be a clear accept if the game has many rolls remaining. Conversely, a small advantage in a simplified position might justify an aggressive double.

The Crawford Rule and Match Play

Tournament backgammon typically uses match play, where the first player to reach a predetermined number of points wins. This format introduces the Crawford Rule: when a player is one point from victory, the doubling cube is removed for one game. This prevents the trailing player from immediately doubling to catch up, adding another layer of strategy to the endgame.

Match play changes everything. Suddenly, the score matters as much as the position. When trailing 4-1 in a 5-point match, you might take doubles you'd never accept for money. The concept of match equity – your percentage chance of winning from any given score – becomes paramount. It's a different game entirely, one where psychological pressure and score management matter as much as checker play.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

After thousands of games, I've noticed patterns in how beginners struggle. The most common mistake? Playing too safely. Beginners often make points deep in their own board while leaving their back checkers stranded. This defensive approach feels secure but usually leads to disaster. Backgammon rewards controlled aggression and calculated risks.

Another frequent error involves the doubling cube. Beginners either ignore it entirely or use it recklessly, doubling at the first sign of advantage. The cube is a scalpel, not a hammer. Proper cube handling often determines the difference between a good player and a great one. Learn to recognize when your position is too good to double (because your opponent will drop) versus when it's not quite good enough (and they'll gleefully accept).

Pip counting – calculating the total distance your checkers must travel versus your opponent's – seems like advanced technique, but it's actually fundamental. You don't need exact counts, but you should develop an intuitive sense of who's ahead in the race. This awareness informs every strategic decision, from when to break contact to when to offer a double.

The Psychology of the Game

Backgammon reveals character. I've watched mild-mannered accountants transform into aggressive attackers over the board, and I've seen corporate sharks play with surprising caution. The dice ensure that everyone experiences both triumph and disaster, often within the same game. How you handle these swings – the bad beats, the miracle rolls – defines you as a player.

There's an old saying in backgammon: "The dice have no memory." Each roll is independent, unaffected by previous results. Yet humans are pattern-seeking creatures. We see streaks where none exist, feel the dice are "hot" or "cold." Learning to maintain emotional equilibrium, to make each decision based on the current position rather than recent history, is perhaps the game's greatest challenge.

Beyond the Basics

Once you've mastered the fundamentals, backgammon reveals endless depths. Advanced concepts like the 5-point versus the 4-point anchor, the timing of a back game, or the intricacies of prime versus prime positions await. Each position type has its own strategic considerations, its own key features to recognize.

The modern game has been revolutionized by computer analysis. Programs like eXtreme Gammon and GNU Backgammon can analyze any position to fractions of equity points. This has led to discoveries that overturned centuries of conventional wisdom. Positions that experts once considered clear passes are now known to be takes. Moves that seemed natural are revealed as subtle errors. Yet the human element remains irreplaceable – computers play perfectly, but they can't read opponents or manage the psychological aspects of match play.

A Game for Life

What keeps me coming back to backgammon after all these years? It's the perfect combination of elements: simple enough to learn in an afternoon, complex enough to study for a lifetime. Every game is different, shaped by the random fall of dice yet guided by strategic principles. It's a game that rewards study but never becomes solved, where a beginner can beat a world champion with a lucky sequence of rolls, yet where skill inevitably prevails over time.

Backgammon connects us to history. When you set up those checkers in their starting position, you're participating in a tradition that stretches back five thousand years. Pharaohs played versions of this game. Roman legionaries carried portable boards on campaign. The terminology itself – blots, points, bearing off – carries echoes of medieval Europe and the Islamic Golden Age.

But more than history, backgammon offers community. Walk into any major city, and you'll find backgammon clubs meeting in cafes, parks, and community centers. The game transcends language barriers – I've played meaningful games with opponents where we shared no common tongue except the universal language of dice and checkers.

Start playing, and you'll discover what millions have learned before you: backgammon isn't just a game. It's a mirror that reflects how we handle risk, how we balance aggression with caution, how we cope with forces beyond our control. In learning to play backgammon well, we learn something about playing life well too. The dice will be cruel sometimes. Your opponent will roll exactly what they need at the worst possible moment. But you'll also experience those magical moments when the dice align, when your strategy crystallizes, when you see three moves ahead and execute flawlessly.

That's the real secret of backgammon: it's not about controlling the dice. It's about controlling yourself, making the best decisions with the information available, and accepting both victory and defeat with grace. Master that, and you've learned something far more valuable than just another board game.

Authoritative Sources:

Bray, Chris. Backgammon for Winners. London: Batsford, 2002.

Jacoby, Oswald, and John R. Crawford. The Backgammon Book. New York: Viking Press, 1970.

Magriel, Paul. Backgammon. New York: Times Books, 1976.

Robertie, Bill. Advanced Backgammon: Technical Play. Arlington: The Gammon Press, 1991.

Trice, Walter. Backgammon Boot Camp. San Francisco: Fortuitous Press, 2004.

Woolsey, Kit. How to Play Tournament Backgammon. Arlington: The Gammon Press, 1993.