How to Play Backgammon Beginners Guide Play Online for Free

Or, worse, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board, he is backgammoned and loses three times the value of the doubling cube. Play with an artificially intellegent opponent or play with a friend with Pass & Play! 247 Backgammon has games in five difficulites, ranging from easy to expert!

  • You will learn about essential concepts such as movement, hitting, bearing off, and the role of the doubling cube.
  • The “expert” of the 1970s would be hard-pressed to hold their own with many of today’s intermediates.
  • These French Chavet pieces have taken over as the main choice for long study sessions.
  • If the players roll the same number again, then the cube is turned up another notch, though players often agree to limit the number of automatic doubles to one per game.
  • Winning a single game with the cube level on 2 will give you 2 points, winning a gammon (which is 2 points) with a cube level of 4 will give you 8 points.
  • Your checker can only be moved to an open point (a point that is not occupied by two or more of your opponent’s checkers).

A player’s chip cannot be moved to a point that is already occupied by two or more of his or her opponent’s chips. In such cases, the player needs to find an alternative move. If one or more of your checkers are on the bar, you must get those checkers back on the board before moving any others. This is done by moving the checker from the bar to an open point on your opponent’s home board, corresponding to one of the numbers you roll. If both numbers rolled correspond to points that are not open, then you lose your turn.

Q: How do you use a doubling cube?

After pioneering work by Dr. Gerry Tesauro at the IBM Laboratories in White Plains, New York, two commercial programs, JellyFish and Snowie, dominated the market in the latter years of the last century. Now the de facto standard is eXtreme Gammon (XG) which is undoubtedly the strongest bot to date. https://animalquestslot.com/ There is a tablet version, XG Mobile, for both Apple and Android devices, but note that this version is not as strong as the PC version. Also know that there’s no limit to how many checkers you can place on a point. Five checkers on 13 (the midpoint).Three checkers on 8 and five checkers on 6.

Hitting Your Opponent’s Blot

A doubling cube, with the numerals 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its
faces, is used to keep track of the current stake of the game. Blue must now use her roll to enter her checker into White’s home board before moving any other checkers. Now if Blue rolls 1-3, since White is occupying the 3-point Blue is forced to enter on the 1-point. A checker is entered by moving it to an open point in your opponent’s home board. If Blue rolled 6-3 and was unable to enter (often referred to as "dancing") it would automatically end her turn. In match play, the Crawford Rule states that if one player is just one point away from winning the match, the doubling cube cannot be used in the following game.

The object of the game is for each player to bring all their checkers into their home board, and then to bear them off the board. The best cups have a ridge just below the lip on the inside of the cup to ensure fair rolling. Some clubs use baffle boxes, a device through which the dice tumble, to remove even further the chance of interfering with them as they are cast. Like any really good game the rules can be easily learned in 30 minutes.

The doubling cube is a die with the numbers 2,4,8,16,32 and 64 written on it. This dice is never rolled and is instead used as a tracker to keep track of the bet multiplier. One half of the board represents each players home board, with one side belonging to each player. The pips are numbered from 1 to 24 (mirrored for each player). Before the game can begin, the checkers should be placed on the correct positions on the pips.

Playing the Game

Backgammon combines elements of strategy, probability, and luck, making it a challenging and engaging game. Players must make decisions based on the current board position, the available moves, and the potential risks and rewards. You may bear off a checker by rolling the number that corresponds to the point on which that checker resides.

The two quadrants facing each other on the other side of the bar are their respective ‘outer boards’. The set of chips belonging to each player, move around the board in pre-designated, opposing directions (clock-wise vs counter clock-wise), based on the rolls of a pair of dice. The first player to move all 15 checkers from their starting position to off the board wins the game. If a single checker of either color is located on a point, that is known as a blot. If your checker lands on an opponent’s blot, the opponent’s checker is removed from the board and placed on the bar (the wooden area dividing the game board in half). By prior agreement, if both players roll the same number on the first roll the stakes are doubled.

Rolling Doubles in Backgammon

Other authors such as Danny Kleinman and Bill Robertie also started to produce analytical material. Today the backgammon book market is a high quality but niche market. Online resources for learning are also plentiful, read Backgammon is as Easy as 1, 2, 3, take a free class at Backgammon 101, and watch the Backgammon for Complete Beginners video series. Notice that the player who goes first never has doubles on their first turn because ties on the first roll are always broken. We’re here to help you succeed with some simple steps on how to play backgammon for beginners.

A point occupied by a single checker of either color is called a blot. During the course of the game, a player who feels he has a sufficient advantage may propose doubling the stakes. He may do this only at the start of his own turn and before he has rolled the dice. A player who is offered a double may refuse, in which case he concedes the game and pays one point. Otherwise, he must accept the double and play on for the new higher stakes.

Your checker can only be moved to an open point (a point that is not occupied by two or more of your opponent’s checkers). A player who has made all six points in their home board is said to have a closed board. If the opponent then has any checkers on the bar they will not be able to re-enter them into their adversary’s home board.

Gammons and backgammons count only as a single game if a double has not been offered and accepted during the course of the game. This rule speeds up play by eliminating situations where a player avoids doubling so they can play on for a gammon. A checker may only evoplay demo be moved to a point already occupied by one or more of the player’s own checkers or to an open point, meaning one that is not occupied by two or more opposing checkers. A checker may move to a point if it is occupied by only one of the opponent’s checkers.

Before getting started, of course, you’ll need to set up a Backgammon board. Tournament play is far more difficult than money play because the score influences doubling decisions and checker plays. Backgammon is one of the oldest games in existence alongside Go and Chess. It is probably about 5,000 years old and originated in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). An excellent pictorial history can be found in the hardback version of “The Backgammon Book” by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford. See our New to Backgammon collection of articles or take a free beginner Backgammon 101 class. The vertical divider in the middle of the board is called the bar, and the bear off trays are located on the side of the board.

Backgammon Rules and How To Play:

To determine the order of play, players each throw one die, and rerolls are used as needed to break ties. The player rolling highest becomes the box; second highest becomes the captain of the team playing against the box. The captains plays for the team, and has the final say on all checker-play decisions. If the game later turns around and the player who owns the cube feels he now has an advantage, he may redouble the stakes to 4. His opponent may refuse and give up the current stakes (now two units) or he may accept and continue play at quadruple the initial stakes. A doubling cube, with the numerals 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces, is used to keep track of the current stake of the game.