Backgammon is a board game for two players, played with two dice each, thirty checkers, and on a board made up of twenty-four narrow triangles called "points". The points alternate in colour and are grouped into six triangular points on each quarter of the board. Each quarter of the board is known as a player's home board, outer board, and their opponent's home board and outer board. The home and outer boards are divided by a line down the centre of the board called the "bar"

Backgammon initial position

The initial positions of the players' checkers at the start of a game are two on each player's 24 point, five on each player's 13 point, three on each player's 8 point, and five on each player's 6 point. This can be seen in the picture.

Rolling and Moving

Players then take turns at rolling their dice and moving their checkers around the board, according to the values of dice roll. Should a player roll a double the moves are doubled so they may up to four checkers a total of 4 times one of the die's values. The object of a game is for players to move all their checkers to their home-board. One player moves their checkers in a clockwise direction around the board while the other moves in an anticlockwise direction. Players may move their checker from its current point to a subsequent point in sequence around the board by counting along the points by the value of numbers rolled with the dice. Players may move 1, 2, 3, or 4 checkers in a turn depending on the dice values thrown and the player's choice of available moves. For a move to be allowed the destination point must have no more than one of the opponent's checkers on it. Players may have any number of their checkers on a single point.

Hitting

If a point only has one opponent's checker on it then the player may move their checker to it and send it to the bar the middle of the board. This is known as a "hit". Once a checker has been placed on the bar, then the player must start moving it from the opponent's home-board. To bring a checker back into play from the bar, the player must roll a value corresponding to a point in their opponent's home-board that has no more than one of their opponent's checkers on it. A player may not make any further moves until all their checkers on the bar have been brought back into play.

The Doubling Cube

A doubling cube is a die marked with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. It is used to multiple the original winning value in points that the winning player, wins at the end. Whenever a player thinks he can win the game during the course of play, he may double the stakes initially set at the start of a game. The player must do this when it is their turn and before he has rolled his dice. The other player must agree to doubling the stakes before it can take effect. If the other player doesn't agree to the doubling, he forfeits the game with the stake before this doubling. While initially the double cube can be used by both players, the each next doubling can be offered only by the other player.

Bearing Off

Once a player has moved all their checkers around the board and into their home-board, they start to "bear-off". Bearing-off is the removal of checkers from the board and out of play. Players may bear off a checker by rolling a dice value that corresponds to the point number it is on. If there are no checkers on the dice's corresponding point number and all players checkers occupy lower positions they must bear-off a checker from the highest occupied point.