Backgammon rules

Backgammon

Race your fifteen checkers around the board and bear them all off before your opponent. Both players use the same twenty-four points, but travel in opposite directions.

The board and the first roll

Your checkers begin in four stacks: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point and five on your 6-point. Your home board is points 1–6. The other player has the mirror-image setup. Each player rolls one die to start; the higher roll begins, using those two numbers for the opening turn. After that, players take turns rolling two dice.

Moving checkers

Each die is a separate move. A roll of 3 and 5 lets you move one checker three points and another five, or move the same checker three then five if both landing points are open. Doubles give you four moves of that number. You may land on an empty point, one of your own stacks, or a point with exactly one opposing checker. You cannot land on a point held by two or more opposing checkers.

You must use both dice when you can. If only one can be played, play it; if either number could be played but not both, use the higher one. A move may pass over blocked points, but each landing point must be legal. If no move is possible, your turn passes.

Landing on a lone opposing checker hits it and sends it to the bar. If you have a checker on the bar, re-enter it into the opponent's home board before moving anything else. The die determines its entry point, which must be open. You cannot use another checker to avoid a blocked entry.

Bearing off and winning

Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you may bear them off. A die removes a checker from the matching point; if that point is empty, a higher checker may move within the home board. You may remove a checker from a lower point with an oversized die only when no checker remains on a higher point. If a checker is hit during bearing off, bring it home again before removing more. The first player to bear off all fifteen wins.

Doubling and match play

Before rolling, you may offer to double the game's value. Your opponent can accept and take ownership of the cube, or decline and concede the current value. The cube owner may offer the next double. A normal win is worth the cube value; a gammon, when the loser has borne off nothing, is worth twice that; a backgammon, when the loser also has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, is worth three times that. Tables may set a match target and optional Crawford or Jacoby rules before play. Those settings appear with the table.