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| Are you a big fan of the well-known backgammon? If you could, would you play it day and night? It’s true that this game is a favourite both for the general audience and for professional gamblers. So be it because of intending to have fun, or in order to gain money, more and more people choose to play backgammon today either in a casino, or at home, among friends, or on the internet. The game attracts so many people because it’s very simple to learn. |
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| But in order for one to be more successful, and have a greater enjoyment, studying the rules carefully is of primary importance. |
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Don’t forget that a backgammon game is not only about making some moves, hitting the opponent’s checkers and about bearing yours off. The game is a big probe of your skills, a challenge between you and the computer or between you and another player. That’s why backgammon is so popular, as it combines luck and chance with skill, professionalism and strategic thinking. In order for you to have fun and be competitive in the same time, you are recommended to study this article which is going to present you the basic backgammon rules.
To begin with, you should know that backgammon is a table game played by two people. The luck element in this game consists of rolling two dice, which roll determines the moves you can make with your checkers. There are 15 pieces for each player which should be placed and finally removed from the board. This checkerboard is divided into four, and it has 24 narrow triangles on it which are called points. Both players’ points are counted from one to twenty-four, but the direction is not the same. While one player has his or her first point on the near right, and point twenty-four in the opposite side, the other player has his or her first point on his or her near left side. Many backgammon rules are related to the special points lasting from 19 until 24 which are called home. This is the place players have to move their pieces before bearing them off.
Getting familiarized with the rules is important as this skill can transform your moves into the right ones. Bear in mind that strategic moves mean blocking your opponent and winning the backgammon game! This can be achieved by being the first in removing one’s own counters from the board. But let’s see step by step!
Players start with spreading their fifteen pieces on the board. Determining who is first is made by a throw with a single dice. That player who has the higher number will start the game with another throw, this case with two dice. Throughout the game both players try to move their pieces from the pieces’ initial place towards the other part of the checkerboard. After all of one’s checkers have reached the other side of the board, they can be taken off one by one. You should try to remove your pieces before the other player does this, so that you can become the winner of the game!
As you could see, the set-up position is quite easy: you and your opponent have 15-15 checkers of different colours, most of the times these are black and white. Each player counts the point values in the checkerboard in descending order, so they will move their pieces in an opposing direction. Let’s have an example to understand it better! For instance, point number one of a player will be point number twenty-four for his or her opponent, and so forth.
In the beginning pieces are placed as follows. Keep in mind that the order should be kept! Two pieces of each player are placed on point number twenty-four, three-three men are put on the eight points, five checkers of each player go to point thirteen, and the last five belong to point number six. Throughout the game one should be careful to their checkers not to be hit or blocked by the other player.
The next thing to be discussed is pip counting which means that players should move their checkers with as many spaces as the spots on the dice show. The two dice will show two numbers, so you may move two checkers based on these numbers. Or eventually you can move only one checker using both pips. For instance, if you roll a two and a five, you may move one piece two points, and another one five points, or you can move a single piece seven points forward. Another rule worth to be mentioned is the use of doubles. This allows you not only to make your moves, but also to have an additional roll and use them according to your needs.
A very interesting rule refers to moving the pieces. This rule says that the roll with two dice allows either two pieces or a single piece to be moved. But the key question here refers to the place on the checkerboard to where the piece is moved. This can be of there types. The first is when the place or point has a piece of the opponent on it. In the second case the point is free, so there is no piece on it. In the last allowed version there may be any number of one’s own pieces on the point where one tries to move his or her checker. Out of these three versions, another rule applies, namely hitting.
Hitting can be understood only after you have mastered the basic backgammon rules. This game component occurs when one can move to a point which is occupied by one checker of the opponent. This piece is called a blot, and by hitting it, you enforce it to go on the bar and stay there until it can be re-entered. You can see by now that keeping clear of the bar and bringing one’s own pieces into one’s home board as soon as possible is essential in backgammon. Otherwise you lose much time, as if one of your checkers is on the bar, and you fail to re-enter it, all of your dice throws are lost. If you have been blotted, first you have to return your blot to the game, and only after that can you continue the game. However, if you throw a dice that brings your blot back to a point occupied by one of the other players’ pieces, then you can re-enter to the board, while your opponent’s piece goes to the bar automatically. It’s true that you can immensely amuse this continuous transformation of luck and misfortune!
The most essential rules in backgammon refer to its ending stage. The process is called bearing off, and it means removing one’s own checkers off after getting them into one’s own home board. Bearing the pieces off is made according to the rolled numbers. Let’s have an example! If you throw a two you can remove a piece from point number two. Remember that you should be careful not to be hit throughout the bearing off process as this would result in the piece’s replacement to the home board, and you can recommence the whole process. All in all, it is evident that this is the key-stage of the game according to the backgammon rules as it determines who the winner of the game is, and how many points he or she gets.
Finally let’s discuss about the scoring! If you just simply win the game, you get one point. However, if you bear all of your checkers off and by that time your opponent doesn’t manage to remove any piece, you get a gammon, which means two points for you. In the third situation you can make the same thing as mentioned before, with the difference that your opponent will end up the game with one or more checkers on the bar. This is called a backgammon (thus the name of the game), and it means three points for you.
It is worth mentioning that a backgammon game is usually played at a good pace. Probably that’s why both in the traditional way, and in its online versions, backgammon is played in matches as well. In this case the final winner is that player who first reaches a certain, predefined number of points. So don’t be surprised if you see two people playing backgammon for hours, they are very likely to go through many matches. But although a single winning doesn’t mean anything great, you should take care of your every single move!
That’s the whole thing! It’s not complicated, is it? You could see that it is possible to get through the basic backgammon rules in five minutes. Study these rules carefully, and you will certainly have more success with your backgammon plays! And don’t give up as experts say a game takes a whole life to be mastered. Have a good time while playing backgammon! |
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