Backgammon is a game of luck and requires a certain skill. Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games. Backgammon game has origins dating back to around 5000 years. The ancient Greeks and the Romans used to play this game.

The game of backgammon is played between two people only with 15 checkers each on a board consisting of 24 points. The checkers are moved based on the rolls of the dice. Each player has to bring his own checkers home and bear them off before his opponent does, thus hitting and blocking the enemy checkers. The first player to bear off all of their checkers wins the game. Backgammon is a game of odds, calculations and patterns.

Both the players have their own pair of dice. A doubling cube, with the numerals 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces, is used to keep track of the game.

Backgammon Variations

There are many variants of standard backgammon games. These backgammon variations usually differ in the starting position, restrict certain moves, or give special values to certain dice rolls.

Acey-deucey: It is a backgammon variation in which players start with no checkers on the board, and bear them on at the start of the game. The roll of 1-2 is considered more important as it allows the player to select any doubles move they wish to. A player also gets an extra turn after a roll of 1-2 or doubles.

Hypergammon: It is a backgammon variation in which players have only three checkers on the board, starting with one each on the 24, 23 and 22 points.

Nackgammon: It is a backgammon variation in which players start with one checker on the six points and midpoint and two checkers on the 23 point.

Russian Backgammon: It is a backgammon variation in which players start with no checkers on the board. Both the players move in the same direction to bear off in a common home board. In this variant, doubles are considered more powerful.

Gul Bara and Tapa: These are also backgammon variants popular in south-eastern Europe and Turkey. The play iterates between Backgammon, Gul Bara, and Tapa until any one of the players reaches a score of 7 or 5.