How to play Backgammon

What you need

• A backgammon board: 24 narrow triangles called points, in four quadrants of six. The ridge down the middle is the bar.
• 30 checkers, 15 in each of two colors.
• Dice: USBGF suggests a pair for each player, with a cup each, though two shared dice work fine at home.
• A doubling cube (marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64). It is optional for your first games.

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Set up the game

1. Orient the board. Each player numbers the points from their own side, 1 to 24. Your 1 to 6 points are your home board; your 7 to 12 points are your outer board. Your opponent’s numbering is the mirror of yours: your 13-point is their 12-point.
2. Place your 15 checkers, counting from your own side: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point, five on your 6-point. Your opponent does the same from their side.
3. Know your direction. You move from your high numbers toward your 1-point, and your opponent moves the opposite way. One of you travels clockwise and the other anti-clockwise.
4. Place the cube, if you use one, in the middle showing 64, which stands for a stake of 1.
5. Roll for first move. Each player rolls one die. The higher roll goes first and plays both numbers rolled. Ties re-roll.

Move, hit, re-enter, and bear off

1. Roll and move. Roll two dice and move checkers toward your home board. Each die is a separate move. With 6-4 you can move one checker six and another four, or one checker ten, but only if it can stop legally after the first number. The bar is not counted as a space.
2. Doubles count four times. Roll 5-5 and you get four moves of five each, spread across up to four checkers.
3. Where you can land. You may land on an empty point, a point with your own checkers, or a point with just one opposing checker. A point with two or more opposing checkers is closed to you.
4. Hitting. A single checker is a blot. Land on an opponent’s blot, even while passing through on the combined total of your roll, and it is hit and placed on the bar.
5. Re-entering from the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back in before moving anything else. It enters in the opponent’s home board on the point matching one die: roll 4 and 5 and you may enter on the opponent’s 4- or 5-point if open. If neither point is open, the whole turn is lost.
6. Use your whole roll. You must play both numbers if you legally can. If only one can be played, play it. If either could be played but not both, you must play the larger. With doubles, play as many as you can.
7. Bearing off. Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you may start removing them. A 4 removes a checker from the 4-point. If you roll higher than your highest occupied point, you may use it on the highest occupied point. You may also choose to move inside the home board instead of bearing off.
8. Win. The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins.

A sample opening, roll by roll

Point numbers below are from White’s side unless noted. Both players start with a pip count of 167: the total distance their checkers must travel to bear off.

1. Opening roll. White rolls a 3, Black rolls a 1. White goes first with 3-1 and plays 8/5, 6/5. Two checkers now sit on White’s 5-point, making it. It is one of the best opening plays in the game, because the 5-point blocks Black’s back checkers and can’t be hit. White’s pip count drops to 163.
2. Black rolls 6-4 and runs one back checker ten pips, from Black’s 24-point to Black’s 14-point. From White’s side that checker now sits alone on White’s 11-point.
3. White rolls 6-2. White plays 13/11*, hitting the blot with the 2 (the asterisk marks a hit). The Black checker goes to the bar. With the 6, White plays 24/18.
4. Black rolls 5-5. Black must enter first, and a 5 enters on White’s 5-point. White owns that point with two checkers. No entry is possible, so Black cannot move at all and the whole roll is forfeited.
5. White rolls 6-4 and plays 13/7, 11/7, making the 7-point. White now holds the 5, 6, 7, and 8 points: four in a row in front of Black’s back checkers.
6. Black rolls 3-2. White’s 3-point and 2-point are open, so Black enters with either number, say bar/22 (Black’s numbering) on the 3, and plays the 2 elsewhere.

In six rolls, White has built a strong blockade and Black has lost a full turn on the bar. That is backgammon in miniature: racing, blocking, and hitting all at once.

Scoring with worked examples

Each game is won in one of three ways, per USBGF:

Adding the doubling cube

A player who feels ahead may double before rolling on their turn. The opponent either refuses, conceding the game at its current value, or accepts and plays on at twice the stake. The accepting player then owns the cube, and only they may redouble later.

Example 1. Playing for 1 point a game. Mid-game, White doubles; Black accepts, so the cube shows 2 and sits on Black’s side. White wins a gammon: 2 × 2 = 4 points.

Example 2. Same game, but Black redoubles to 4 later and White accepts. Black wins a single game: 4 points to Black.

Example 3 (match play). In a 7-point match, a gammon won with the cube on 4 scores 2 × 4 = 8 points, so it ends the match in one game. USBGF uses this exact example.

USBGF’s rule of thumb for doubles: if you expect to win at least 25% of the time from a position, you can and should accept.

Beginner strategy

• Make points, especially in your home board. Two or more checkers on a point make it safe and block your opponent. Your 5-point is the most valuable early, which is why 3-1 is such a good opening roll.
• Avoid needless blots. A lone checker can be hit and sent all the way back. When you must leave one, leave it where fewer rolls can hit it, usually farther away from the opponent’s checkers.
• Build a prime. Six points in a row make a full prime. No single die can jump more than six, so a checker trapped behind it can’t escape.
• Count pips before you race. If you are ahead in the pip count and contact is ending, run for home. If you are behind, keep back checkers in place to wait for a shot.
• Bear off safely. USBGF shows a classic trap: with 6-1 and checkers on the 4-point, playing 4/3, 3/off leaves no blot, while 4/off, 1/off leaves one exposed to a checker on the bar. Remember you can play the dice in either order.
• Take doubles you can win a quarter of. Beginners pass too many doubles. The 25% guideline from USBGF is a solid starting point.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Jumping a closed point with a combined total. A 3 and a 5 isn’t an automatic eight. The checker must be able to stop on the intermediate point. If neither the 3 nor the 5 lands on an open point, that checker can’t move eight.
• Moving while a checker is on the bar. Nothing else moves until every checker on the bar is back in. After entering, unused numbers must be played if possible.
• Playing only one die when both are playable. You must use both if any legal sequence allows it, and the larger one if only one can be used.
• Bearing off with a checker outside the home board. Not allowed. If one of your checkers is hit during bear-off, it must come all the way around before you bear off again.
• Cocked dice. USBGF: dice must land flat in the right-hand section of the board, or both are re-rolled. Dice landing on checkers may count if players agree.
• Rolling before your opponent finishes. The player whose turn it was may require the early roll to be redone, or let it stand and play knowing the next roll.
• Illegal moves. In friendly games, point them out and correct them before the next roll.

Optional and match rules

These are optional or match-play rules described by USBGF, not part of a first single game.

• Automatic doubles. By agreement, if both players roll the same number on the opening roll, the stake doubles. The cube turns to 2 and stays in the middle.
• Jacoby rule. Gammons and backgammons count only as a single game unless the cube has been turned. It speeds up money games. Not used in tournaments.
• Beavers and raccoons. After accepting a double, a player who thinks they are the favourite may immediately turn the cube again while keeping it (a beaver). Some allow the original doubler to respond with another turn (a raccoon).
• Crawford rule (matches). When one player gets within one point of winning a match, the opponent may not double in the next game. Automatic doubles, beavers, raccoons, and the Jacoby rule aren’t used in match play.
• No-cube games (house rule). Many families never use the cube and play first-to-a-number of single games, counting gammons as 2 and backgammons as 3.

Teach it in five minutes

1. Show the race. Trace your direction with a finger: “Your checkers run this way, round to here, then off the board. Mine run the other way.”
2. Two dice, two moves. Roll and demonstrate one checker moving each number. Then show one checker using both.
3. Safe and unsafe. Put two checkers on a point: “Blocked, I can’t land here.” Put one: “That’s a blot. Land on it and it goes to the bar.”
4. The bar. “If you get hit, you must bring that checker in first, in my home board.”
5. Bearing off. “When all fifteen are home, use the dice to take them off. First one off with all fifteen wins.”
6. Play without the cube for the first few games.

Age and group-size advice

Backgammon is strictly two players. We suggest 8+; children who can add two dice quickly pick up movement fast, and blocking ideas follow after a few games. USBGF says the rules can be learned in about 30 minutes and that it takes far longer to master. For a group, run a small round-robin of single games, or let two people play while a third keeps a match score.

Check yourself

Questions people ask

Sources and edition notes

Standard backgammon checker movement and basic single game, as described by the U.S. Backgammon Federation. Doubles, re-entry, bearing off, gammon and backgammon are included; cube decisions and tournament match rules require the linked full guide.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• U.S. Backgammon Federation: beginner’s guide

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