Backgammon is played by two opponents, each trying to take their checkers out of the board. This is the most basic of Backgammon rules, and has remained true since the early days of Backgammon history, thousands of years ago, until the current games that are played in online casinos today.
The Backgammon board is divided into four sections. The player's home board is the top right one, the outer boards are the two left sides, and the bottom right one is the opponent's home board.
The Backgammon board has twenty four positions, called points, on which the checkers move. These points are numbered from 1 to 24. The first point in the player's home board is the 1st point, and the farthest that is in the opponents home board is the player's 24th point. This, consequently, is the opponent's 1st point. Between the left and right boards lies the bar, which separates the two sides of the board.
Backgammon moving rules - According to Backgammon rules, Each player moves his checkers in a counter clockwise direction, to the opponent's home board. Once all the checkers reached the home board, the player can take out his checkers, in a stage named "the bear off". The moves of the checkers are determined according to the roll of two dice, each numbered from 1 to 6, which are also used to determine the moves during the bear off.
The doubling cube is used to raise the stakes in the Backgammon game. It is numbered with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. For a $5 bet, if the doubling cube reaches 8 then the stakes are 8*5=$40. Doubling makes the game more interesting and draws players from other online casinos games
At the start of the game, each player throws one of the dice. The player with the highest roll plays according to how the two dice rolled. If both players roll a tie, they roll again. After the first roll, each player throws both dice and moves accordingly. How the dice roll determines the number of points, or pips, each player moves.
Backgammon rules enable players to move either to open points that occupy no checkers of the opponent, points with the same player's checkers, or points with a single checker of the opponent.
In the last case, the player moves his checker to the place of the opponent's single checker, and the opponent's checker is hit and taken out to the bar. To re-enter the board, the player must roll a number that is not occupied in the homeboard by the opponent, and until he does, he cannot play.
A player that rolls double numbers, moves 4 times. For example, if you roll double 3 you can move 3 points 4 times.
Backgammon rules force the player to move according to the dice score, if it is possible.
If a players manages to bear off all of his checkers before the opponent bears off any checker, then the opponent losses double the wager, and the win is called gammon.
If the player wins with the opponent still in the bar or in his home board, then the player wins triple the wager, and the win is called Backgammon.
Ann Pettersson