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Backgammon Rules

The object of the game is for each player to bring all his checkers into his home board, and then to bear them off the board. The first player to clear all his checkers off the board is the winner.

Backgammon is a simple game with deep strategic elements. It does not take long to learn to play, although obscure situations do arise which require careful interpretation of the rules. The playing time for each individual game is short, so it is often played in matches, for example the first to five points. Game and match are used in Backgammon to refer to these distinct elements, as in, "I won two games in a row, but then she won three in a row and I lost the match, three points to two."

Each player begins with two checkers on his 24-point, three checkers on his 8-point, and five checkers each on his 13-point and his 6-point.

Note that the board as shown can be flipped horizontally, with starting positions and direction of play likewise flipped but with no changes to the mechanics of gameplay. The two orientations are equally common and game boards are all designed to be played both ways.

Points one to six, where the player wants to get his pieces to, are called the home board or inner board. A player may not bear off any checkers unless all of his checkers are in his home board. Points seven to twelve are called the outer board, points thirteen to eighteen are the opponent's outer board, and points nineteen to twenty-four are the opponent's home board. The 7-point is often referred to as the bar point and the 13-point as the mid point.

At the start of the game, each player rolls one die. Whoever rolls higher starts his first turn using the numbers on the already-rolled dice. In case of a tie, the players roll again. The players alternate turns and roll two dice at the beginning of each turn after the first.

After rolling the dice a player must, if possible, move checkers the number of points showing on each die. For example, if he rolls a 6 and a 3, he must move one checker six points forward and another one three points forward. The dice may be played in either order. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six, but not nine all at once.

If a player has no legal moves after rolling the dice, because all of the points to which he might move are occupied by two or more enemy checkers, he forfeits his turn. However, a player must play both dice if it is possible. If he has a legal move for one die only, he must make that move and then forfeit the use of the other die. (If he has a legal move for either die, but not both, he must play the higher number.)

If a player rolls two of the same number (doubles) he must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5 and a 5, he must play four checkers forward five spaces each. As before, a checker may be moved multiple times as long as the moves are distinct.

A checker may land on any point occupied by no checkers or by friendly checkers. Also it may land on a point occupied by exactly one enemy checker (a lone piece is called a blot). In the latter case the blot has been hit, and is temporarily placed in the middle of the board on the bar, i.e., the divider between the home boards and the outfields. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more enemy checkers. Thus no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players at the same time.

Checkers on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home field. A roll of 1 allows the checker to enter on the 24-point, a roll of 2 on the 23-point, etc. A player with one or more checkers on the bar may not move any other checkers until all of the checkers on the bar have re-entered the opponent's home field.

When all of a player's checkers are in his home board, he may remove them from the board, or bear them off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, etc. A number may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower point unless there are no checkers on any higher points. For example, a 4 may be used to bear off a checker from the 3-point only if there are no checkers on the 4-, 5-, and 6-points.

A checker borne off from a lower point than indicated on the die still counts as the full die. For instance, suppose a player has only one checker on his 2-point and two checkers on his 1-point. Then on rolling 1-2, he may move the checker from the 2-point to the 1-point (using the 1 rolled), and then bear off from the 1-point (using the 2 rolled). He is not required to maximize the use of his rolled 2 by bearing off from the 2-point.

If one player has not borne off any checkers by the time his opponent has borne off all fifteen, he has lost a gammon, which counts for twice a normal loss. If a player has not borne off any checkers, and still has checkers on the bar, or in his opponent's home board by the time his opponent has borne off all fifteen, or both, he has lost a backgammon, which counts for triple a normal loss. Sometimes a distinction is made between pieces in the opponent's home board (triple loss) and pieces on the bar (quadruple loss).