Backgammon Rules - Basic Guide

Backgammon is played between two players on a backgammon board. Each player has an outer board and a home board along with 15 pieces known as checkers, a pair of dice and doubling cube. The backgammon board is similar to the chess or checkers, except it comprises twenty four points. If a person loves to play checkers but hates the difficulty of chess, then backgammon is certainly the best to play. 

Backgammon rules are not so complicated once a person reads the instructions, even if he is not acquainted with the game rules. Below are some of backgammon basic rules, so you can read them and start playing the famous game which lasted for several millenniums. 

The main object of backgammon is to move the pieces into the home board and then bear the pieces off the board. The player who bears his pieces first is the winner of the backgammon game.   

In backgammon, the pieces move only in one direction. Each player is assigned 15 pieces in two different colors (one color for each player). The white pieces usually move clockwise where as the black pieces move in the opposite direction. 

Backgammon is generally played for stakes. To start the game, both players roll a single die. The player who attains highest number makes the first move, which is done using both dice. For instance, if the player has rolled two and a four then he can move six spaces or even take two pieces and move them separately. Movement of the checkers is one of the main strategies in the backgammon game. 

A player cannot move his piece to a point already occupied by the other player’s piece. Anyhow, if the point occupies only one piece, then the other player can hit the opponent’s piece and place his piece instead. This is one of the similarities between the game of chess or checkers and backgammon.