So you want to play Backgammon?

If you’ve ever watched a rapid-fire game of BG in action (sorry, no embedding)  then you’ve no doubt been impressed by the professionalism and skill of the players. The object of this game is to bear off as many of your markers/checkers as possible in order to beat your opponent.

Just the other day I was enjoying a game of online backgammon. While it certainly lacks the feel and authenticity of rolling a pair of dice across the backgammon board, there are some striking similarities. For starters it’s the same great game and the object of the game is the same – move off your checkers before your opponent. Online backgammon is generally very well presented and superbly animated. The online games feature realistic gaming action and rapid-pace changes.

Each of the spaces on your backgammon board is reflected by way of triangles. These are known as points. But in the game we don’t describe them as points we actually refer to them as numbers. So there are 12 ‘points’ on each player’s side of the board. That’s 24 in total. So you would either have between 1 and 12 or 13 and 24. And the movement in backgammon goes in the opposite direction to that of your opponent.
Let’s set this bad boy up and get gaming

Backgammon boards are quick and easy to set up. There’s very little fuss and your opponent’s side of the board will look identical to yours. This is how we do it:

• 2 checkers placed on point number 24
• 5 checkers placed on point number 13
• 3 checkers placed on point number 8
• 5 checkers placed on point number 6

If you’re wondering who goes first then you should know that decision is determined by a throw of the dice. The competitor who rolls a higher number will commence the game. Everything goes counterclockwise from point 24 to point 1. When you stake cash on these games – which is of course the whole point of it for me – then the currency denomination for each game must be preset. You can however double the stake by ‘turning the doubling cube.’ This will show the number 64. Now the opponent can accept the double or forfeit the game. The last person to accept a double may double next. This allows for a high-stakes increase in the game’s value. When you are playing, please note that the checkers can land on any of the following options: empty points, occupied points by your own checkers and points occupied by single checkers.