Learn to Play Backgammon in 6 Easy Steps

The board is divided into four quadrants: The player's home board and outer board, and the opponent's home board (right) and outerboard (left).

There are 24 triangles on the backgammon board, 1 being the triangle to the player's right, and counting upwards in a counterclockwise direction.

Each player will set up 15 checkers on the board. 2 checkers on their 24th point, 3 checkers on the 8th point, 5 checkers on the 13th point, and 5 more on the 16th point.

Each player will roll a die to determine who goes first. 

After the first turn, either player can double the stakes as they like.

Each player will have 2 dice and a shaker cup. 

The two numbers you get from rolling the dice represent the number of moves you can make. You can make two separate moves with two separate checkers, or combine the numbers you get and move one checker.

You can move your checker to any open point as long as there are less than 2 of the oponent's checkers on that point. 

If you roll doubles, you've earned yourself two extra moves.

If you can't find an open point with the numbers you've rolled, you lose your turn.

While you can start moving with any checker you choose, it's always best to get your checkers out of your opponent's home board first.

Try to avoid having only one checker on a point as you could get hit by your opponent's checkers.

Try to spread out your checkers in 2s and 3s to block out your opponent, rather than congregating them on fewer points.

If you hit a blot, which is a point occupied by only one of the oponent's checker, that checker gets moved to the middle bar. The opponent can not move any of their other checkers until they get the checker on the middle bar back on the home board.

If you end up with checkers in the middle bar, the only way to get out is if you roll a number that will land your checker on to an open point. When you are in the middle bar, you can't use the sum of the numbers.

To win the game, you must be the first to bear off all of your checkers from the board into your tray. In order to do this, you need to roll the dice so the number is exact or higher than the spaces needed to remove each checker.

You can start bearing off when your checkers have made a round to your home court.