Backgammon rules

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.

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.

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.

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.