Backgammon rules
- Tavla
- Короткие нарды
- Πόρτες
- Табла
- طاولة عادي
- Table
- Короткі нарди
Backgammon is a race: two players, fifteen checkers each, moving in opposite directions around twenty-four points. Whoever bears all fifteen off first wins. These are the complete rules as nard.gg plays them — they follow the international tournament rules.
- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 6: 5 × White
- Point 8: 3 × White
- Point 12: 5 × Black
- Point 13: 5 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 5 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 167
- Pips Black: 167
The starting position
Each player, counted from their own end: two checkers on the 24-point, five on the 13-point, three on the 8-point and five on the 6-point — the mirror image of the opponent's. Your home board is points one to six; that is where your checkers are heading and where they leave the board.
The first roll
Each player rolls one die; the higher one starts and plays exactly those two numbers. A tie is rolled again — so the first turn of a game is never a double.
Rolling and moving
You roll two dice and move forward by exactly the numbers shown — one checker per number, or the same checker twice, landing in between. A point held by two or more opposing checkers is closed. A double is played four times.
You must play every number you legally can: both dice, all four of a double. If only one of the two can be played, you must play it — and if either could be played but not both together, the higher one. Only when nothing is playable does the turn pass.
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- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 6: 5 × White
- Point 8: 3 × White
- Point 12: 5 × Black
- Point 13: 5 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 5 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 167
- Pips Black: 167
1 The starting position. White to move. -
Last move White: 8/5 6/5
- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 5: 2 × White
- Point 6: 4 × White
- Point 8: 2 × White
- Point 12: 5 × Black
- Point 13: 5 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 5 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 163
- Pips Black: 167
2 White rolls 3–1 and plays 8/5 6/5. -
Last move Black: 24/13
- Point 1: 1 × Black
- Point 5: 2 × White
- Point 6: 4 × White
- Point 8: 2 × White
- Point 12: 6 × Black
- Point 13: 5 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 5 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 163
- Pips Black: 156
3 Black rolls 6–5 and plays 24/13.
Hitting and the bar
A point with a single opposing checker is open — landing on it hits it, and the hit checker is set on the bar in the middle of the board.
Whoever has a checker on the bar must bring it back in before anything else may move. It re-enters in the opponent's home board, on the point the die names; if every point it could enter on is closed, the rest of the turn is forfeit.
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- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 5: 1 × White
- Point 6: 4 × White
- Point 8: 3 × White
- Point 10: 1 × Black
- Point 12: 5 × Black
- Point 13: 5 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 4 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 166
- Pips Black: 176
1 Black has left a single checker where White can reach it. -
Last move White: 13/10* 6/5
- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 5: 2 × White
- Point 6: 3 × White
- Point 8: 3 × White
- Point 10: 1 × White
- Point 12: 5 × Black
- Point 13: 4 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 19: 4 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Bar Black: 1
- Pips White: 162
- Pips Black: 186
2 White rolls 3–1 and plays 13/10* 6/5. -
Last move Black: bar/23 13/7
- Point 1: 2 × Black
- Point 2: 1 × Black
- Point 5: 2 × White
- Point 6: 3 × White
- Point 8: 3 × White
- Point 10: 1 × White
- Point 12: 4 × Black
- Point 13: 4 × White
- Point 17: 3 × Black
- Point 18: 1 × Black
- Point 19: 4 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × White
- Pips White: 162
- Pips Black: 178
3 Black rolls 6–2 and plays bar/23 13/7.
The doubling cube
Before rolling, you may offer your opponent the cube: take it, and the game is worth double and only the taker may double next; drop it, and the game ends at its current value. In a match the cube rests for one game once a player is a single point from victory (the Crawford game). Backgammon is the only one of the five games here that uses it.
Bearing off
Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you bear off: each number takes a checker from the point it names off the board. A number higher than your highest occupied point bears off from that highest point. Bearing off is never compulsory — an ordinary move is always allowed instead. And a checker that is hit during the bear-off must re-enter from the bar and come all the way round again.
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- Point 1: 1 × White
- Point 2: 1 × White
- Point 3: 1 × White
- Point 4: 2 × White
- Point 5: 2 × White
- Point 6: 2 × White
- Point 19: 3 × Black
- Point 20: 3 × Black
- Point 21: 3 × Black
- Point 22: 2 × Black
- Point 23: 2 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × Black
- Borne off White: 6
- Pips White: 36
- Pips Black: 57
1 White has every checker home; six are already off. -
Last move White: 6/off 5/off
- Point 1: 1 × White
- Point 2: 1 × White
- Point 3: 1 × White
- Point 4: 2 × White
- Point 5: 1 × White
- Point 6: 1 × White
- Point 19: 3 × Black
- Point 20: 3 × Black
- Point 21: 3 × Black
- Point 22: 2 × Black
- Point 23: 2 × Black
- Point 24: 2 × Black
- Borne off White: 8
- Pips White: 25
- Pips Black: 57
2 White rolls 6–5 and plays 6/off 5/off.
Scoring
The winner scores one point — two, the gammon, if the loser has borne off nothing, and three, the backgammon, if the loser has borne off nothing and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board. The cube multiplies whatever the game is worth.
The basics of strategy
Three intentions pull against each other from the first roll: make points, block the opponent, run. The five point in your own home board is the most valuable point on the board — hold it and the way back from the bar narrows. A lone checker is not a mistake but a calculation: what it gains has to cover what a hit would cost. And once the two sides are past each other, the game is a pure race in which only the pip count matters.
Culture and vocabulary
Backgammon is played everywhere and called something different everywhere: tavla in Turkey, τάβλι in Greece, нарды in Russia and the Caucasus, طاولة across the Arab world. The dice calls, by contrast, are nearly the same everywhere — Persian and Turkish numbers: hep yek for 1-1, düşeş for 6-6, and dü, se, cehar and penç in between. Learn them and you can hear from the next table how a game stands.
Quick answers
- How many checkers are there in backgammon?
- Thirty — fifteen a player. They start spread over four points and run towards each other. Whoever gets all fifteen into their own home board and bears them off from there wins.
- How many checkers can sit on one point?
- Any number — there is no upper limit. From two checkers up the point is yours and your opponent may not land on it; a lone checker stands open and can be hit.
- How much is a gammon worth?
- An ordinary win scores one point, a gammon two, a backgammon three. Gammon means the loser has borne off nothing at all — mars in Turkish. Backgammon means one of their checkers is also still on the bar or in the winner's home board. The doubling cube multiplies whatever the result is.
- Who goes first?
- Both players roll one die; the higher number starts and plays exactly those two numbers as the first move. A tie is rerolled — which is why the first move of a game is never a double.
- Why are the rolls called shesh besh, hep yek, düşeş?
- The names of the pips are Persian and Turkish, and they travelled with the game through Turkey and the Balkans: yek, dü, se, cehar, penç, şeş — one to six. Şeş beş is six-five, hep yek is 1-1, düşeş is 6-6. That is how backgammon came to be called shesh besh across much of western Asia.