Backgammon is one of the oldest and popular board games in the world, enjoyed by players of all ages. As we play in chess and checkers, backgammon game also require to make strategies, good planning and outsmarting the opponent. It is a one-on-one game played upon a special board with 15 game pieces called checkers.

The backgammon board consists of 24 points and divided into 4 parts: each player has a home board and an inner board. The object of the game is to be the first player who moves his checkers to the home board and then bears off the checkers, while hitting and entering the opponent's checkers. Basically, backgammon game is a race to see who takes off all of his checkers first. Playing backgammon doesn't take long to learn, but it is difficult to master.

For beginners, there are three different ways or strategies to play backgammon. These are running game, a blocking game, and the tricking game. All the three types of games are different from each other depending upon your individual nature or situation of the game. Selecting right type of strategy at right time will help you to make the most of your game and increase your odds of defeating your opponent.

Running game is the easiest to play as well as to understand. By choosing this mode of game your objective will be to get your counters around the board as quickly as possible and bearing off before your opponent does

Blocking is another great backgammon strategy to help you win. Most players knows that it's much easier to block the opponent's pieces in your own home board, so they will have a more difficult time to get out of your area. Points 4 and 7 are also great spots to block other players.

Playing backgammon is all about tricking your component especially early on in the game. Visualizing the move before actually playing it, you can see if there will be any problems when you decide to strategize.

Movement of Checkers in Backgammon

The checkers can move only forward, to the lowest numbered points.

Checkers can move only to an open point, a point not occupied by two or more checkers.

The checkers move according to the roll of the dice; for example, if you roll 4-5, you can move one checker 4 points and another checker 5 points and you can move one checker 9 points.

When you roll doubles, you can move the checkers twice the number shown on both dice to any legal direction. For example, if you rolled double 6's you can move you checkers 6 points four times at any available combination including move four of your checkers 6 points; move one checker 24 points and so on, as long as you move the checkers to an open point.

All the numbers shown on the dice must be used; if it is impossible, you can move the biggest number, and if it is impossible too, you must lose your turn.

If your opponent’s checkers are moved or stopped on a position on which you only have one single checker sitting (also called a Blot), your checker is beaten and put on the bar. This means that your checker must be brought back completely from the front in the home field of your opponent in the play.

Bearing Off

You can start bearing off immediately after moving all your 15 checkers to your home board.

You bear off a checker placed on a point that matches with the number shown on the dice and remove it off the backgammon board.

If the roll of the dice does not match a point occupied by a checker, you may move a checker placed on a higher-numbered point, and if you can't do that, move a checker from the highest-numbered point on the board.

If your opponent hits one of your checkers while you were busy bearing off, you must attempt to move it back to the home board before continuing bearing off.

If you are done bearing off before your opponent – you win the game.