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    Backgammon · Learning desk

    Learn Backgammon

    Begin with a complete first game. Then take one rule at a time: where checkers start, how a turn works, what a hit changes, and how to finish and score.

    By Bet On Gammon Editorial ·

    Start with the Beginner’s Guide

    New to backgammon? Our main guide takes you from setup to a completed game, including an opening roll, hits, bearing off and match scoring. The focused lessons below deepen those topics rather than replace it.

    Read the Beginner’s Guide to Backgammon
    Backgammon starting position, viewed from White’s sideWhite, with light checkers, has 2 on its 24-point, 5 on its 13-point, 3 on its 8-point and 5 on its 6-point, and moves counter-clockwise from 24 down to its home board at points 1 to 6 in the bottom right. Black, with dark checkers, mirrors this: 2 on White’s 1-point, 5 on White’s 12-point, 3 on White’s 17-point and 5 on White’s 19-point, moving clockwise toward its own home board in the top right.BAR123456789101112131415161718192021222324Black home board ↑White home board ↓Outer boards
    Original Bet On Gammon diagram. Numbers are White’s point numbers. White (light) travels 24 → 13 → 12 → 1, counter-clockwise on this view; Black (dark) travels the opposite way. Seen from Black’s seat, every number flips: White’s 1-point is Black’s 24-point.

    Six lessons, in a useful order

    1. Lesson 1

      Backgammon Board Setup: Checkers, Points and Direction

      Set up all 15 checkers, identify your home board and follow both players’ directions with an original starting-board diagram.

      Learn where everything belongs before rolling.

      Read lesson

    2. Lesson 2

      Backgammon Dice and Doubles: Legal Moves Explained

      Understand separate dice moves, legal intermediate points, forced use of both dice, the higher-die rule and four moves for doubles.

      Make a legal turn, including awkward rolls.

      Read lesson

    3. Lesson 3

      Hitting and Entering from the Bar in Backgammon

      Learn how to hit a blot, enter every barred checker, convert entry point numbers and use the remaining dice legally.

      Add contact: hits, blocked entries and return journeys.

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    4. Lesson 4

      Backgammon Bearing Off Rules: Examples and Edge Cases

      Work through exact and oversized bear-offs, gaps, dice ordering and what changes when a checker is hit during the bear-off.

      Finish the race without skipping forced moves.

      Read lesson

    5. Lesson 5

      Gammon vs Backgammon: Scoring Explained

      Identify mutually exclusive game results, the winner’s home-board condition and match-point values at cubes 1, 2, 4 and 8.

      Identify the result and count match points.

      Read lesson

    6. Lesson 6

      The Backgammon Doubling Cube Explained

      Learn cube timing, take and pass values, cube ownership, redoubles and the Crawford rule through worked match-score examples.

      Introduce cube decisions once checker play is familiar.

      Read lesson

    Keep the references close

    Already know how to play? Use the Rules of Backgammon for a concise rule check. Before an in-person event, read the tournament rules summary and that event’s governing rules.

    The lessons use original illustrations and examples, with visible links to the USBGF beginner’s guide and tournament rules. Source links do not imply external expert review or endorsement.