🎲 Backgammon for Absolute Beginners

What you’ll learn

1. The Board and the RaceDescribe the board's points and quadrants, the fifteen-checker setup, the opposite directions of travel, and how the dice drive movement.The backgammon board has twenty-four triangular points split by a central bar into four quadrants, including each player's home board. Every player starts with fifteen checkers in a fixed mirrored position. The two players race in opposite directions, each heading for their own home board. On each turn a player rolls two dice, and each die gives one move, so the dice set the pace of the race.
2. Rolling, Moving, and DoublesApply the dice to move checkers, handle doubles, tell open points from made points, and follow the rule that both dice must be played when possible.Each die is a separate move, so you may move two different checkers or move one checker twice, treating the numbers as two stops. Rolling doubles gives four moves of that number instead of two. You may land on open points, empty ones, your own, or those with a single enemy checker, but never on a point the opponent has made with two or more checkers. If you can legally play both dice, the rules require you to, and if only one is playable you must use the higher number.
3. Hitting, the Bar, and Getting Back InRecognize blots, understand how hitting sends a checker to the bar, and explain re-entering and being closed out.A single checker alone on a point is a blot and can be hit. When you land on an enemy blot, that checker goes to the bar and must restart its journey. While a checker sits on the bar, its owner cannot move any other checker and must first re-enter it in the opponent's home board on a point matching the dice. If the opponent has made all six points of their home board, the checker is closed out and the turn is forfeited until a point opens.
4. Bearing Off to WinExplain the requirements for bearing off, the higher-die rule, gammon and backgammon wins, and the basic choice between racing and holding.Bearing off begins only after all fifteen checkers reach your home board, and each die removes a checker from the matching point. If you roll a number higher than any occupied point, the higher-die rule lets you bear off from the highest point you still hold. The first player to bear off all fifteen wins; finishing before the opponent bears off any checker is a gammon worth double, and leaving them a checker on the bar or in your home board is a backgammon worth triple. Beginners choose to race when ahead and to hold an anchor when behind, hoping for a game-changing hit.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Britannica
• US Backgammon Federation

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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