Learn the Rules for Playing Backgammon:
Backgammon is a board game for two players. The board layout consists of 24 narrow triangles called points. The points alternate in color and are arranged in two lines of 12 points each. A ridge, called the bar, separates the board to two halves, creating four groups of 6 points. One half of the board with two 6-point lines against each other is called Home Board and another one Outer Board.
Points are numbered differently for each player. The point one for each player is the outside corner of Home half that is located closer to the player. For example, if the Home Board is located to the player's right, his point number one will be the first point from the right at the line that is closer to him. Another player does the same, sitting at the opposite side of the table, so the point one of one player is the point twenty-four of another one.
The checkers are set in the flowing manner: Each player places 5 checkers at the point 6, 3 checkers at the point 8, 5 checkers at the point 13 and 2 checkers at the point 24. As far as the points of another player are numbered in the opposite direction, each stack of the players checkers will have an equal stack of the opponent's checkers in the same row on the opposite side of the board.
Each player uses his own pair of dice to determine the number of points he can use his checkers. Dice are shaken in a dice cup, and a doubling cube is used to keep track of the current stake of the game. The doubling cube is die-shaped cube with numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 on its faces.
The object of Backgammon is to move all checkers to the home board and then bear them off. The first player who succeeds to bear all his checkers wins the game. Players can move their checkers only from points with higher numbers to points with lower ones, so they will play in the opposite directions.
To start the game players throw a single die, and the player who rolls a higher number makes the first move, where the numbers that have been rolled on the first roll determine the number of points to move. All further moves of the game are determined by both dice. A player can move up to two checkers in one move. The number of points to move each one of them is determined a separate die. As was mentioned before, checkers can be moved only forward (from higher points to the lower ones), and can not land on a point where more that one opponent's checker is located.
If a player rolls a double, he moves he plays the numbers he has rolled twice. For example, if a player rolls double 6, he can make 4 moves of 6 points each.
Backgammon players can not pass. They must use all the numbers they roll as long as it is possible. If there are no legal moves with the rolled combination of dice, the player skips his turn.
A point with only one checker on it is called a blot. If a player lands his checker on the opponent's blot, the opponent's checker is hit and is paced on the bar. With one or more checkers on the bar, a player must enter them back into the game as soon as possible. This is done like a regular move that starts form the point next to twenty-four. For, example, if a player has a checker on the bar and rolls 3 and 5 on his next move he must place his barred checker on the point twenty-two or point twenty, unless both of these points are occupied by more than one opponent's checker. A player can not move any other checkers if he has one or more checkers on the bar.
When all checkers of a player are on the Home Board, the player starts to bear them off. This is done by rolling two dice. Each dice indicates a point, from which a checker will be born off. For example, if a player rolls 3 and 5 he bears checkers at points 3 and 5. If there are no checkers at one of these points, he can use this number to move checkers from a higher point to a lower one. If a player bears off all his fifteen checkers before his opponent does it, the player wins.
Backgammon is a gambling game and is played for money. Players agree on the size of the bet in the beginning of the game. Then, during the game, one of the players may propose to double the stakes. If his opponent refuses to do so, he concedes the game and loses the bet in play, otherwise, the bets are doubled and the game continues. The player who was offered to double the stakes and agreed can offer to re-double the stakes later in the game, but the player who was the last to propose doubling can not propose it again.
If one of the players wins and the other one has born neither of his checkers, such situation is called gammon and the losing player must pay double the bet in the game. If the losing player not only has not born any of his checkers, also has a checker on the winner's side of the Home Board or on the bar, this is called backgammon, and a loser pays three times the bet in play.