Backgammon is among the oldest Board Games in the world. Backgammon can only be played between 2 competitors and the rules of Backgammon has remained practically unchanged for centuries, with only variants of the game emerging rather than alterations to the core game.
The original rules of Backgammon stipulate that the playing pieces are moved depending on the outcome of rolling two dice with the winner being decided by the player who has taken off all their pieces from the backgammon board first.
Luck is a large part of backgammon, mainly because each roll of the dice influences the moves performed on that go. Neverheless, there are usually several choices for each player's turn based on the placements on the board.
Strategy and tactics also have a fundamental impact in determining which participant will turn out to be the winner.
Each roll of the dice requires the player to decide on the optimum tactic for that roll of the dice and to anticipate any potential moves by their opponent.
Over the centuries, Backgammon Strategies and Tactics have been formulated for a selection of situations and are now well acknowledged.
There have also been a number of different playing surfaces and Board Games developed, even computerized virtual Backgammon Games on the internet.
Nonetheless, traditionalists will insist that there is still only one true way of playing the game of backgammon and that is making use of a wooden backgammon board with wooden players, face to face, between people.
Backgammon remains an original wooden board game and one that was somehow the first to combine the risk of the dice and the cerebral benefits of strategic thought needed to win. Backgammon has it all.
Backgammon Rules.
The purpose of the Game of Backgammon is for the winner to "bear off" or take away all of their own pieces or checkers from the Backgammon Board before their opponent can do the same.
The pieces of both competitors are placed in a pre-defined pattern at the beginning of each game of Backgammon.
Pieces may be warned from ending on a position by having more than one of your own checkers placed there. Additionally, players may be "hit" and need to be removed from the board. They may rejoin the game at the beginning of the board once they have thrown the appropriate number on the dice.
A piece may be removed from the board if it is placed on the board on its own and the opponent participant rolls a dice that provides him the exact number needed to finish on that board position.
Points 1 through 6 are termed the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are known as the outer board. The 7-point is termed the bar point, and the 13-point as the mid point.
How to Start.
In the Game of Backgammon, play is started by each player throwing just one dice to see which player plays first.
The highest number thrown on the dice wins the opportunity to go first. The moment play commences, after throwing the dice each player must wherever possible, move their pieces in accordance with the numbers displayed on each die. If a double number is thrown the player gets one other turn. A double will allow the participant to shift the pieces twice the value of the number shown. Play then alternates between the two opponents.
In the course of a players move, a piece may finish on any point on the backgammon board that is empty or is occupied only by a player's own checkers (there is no limit to the number of pieces that can reside on a single point or position ).
Furthermore, it may also land on a position occupied by exactly one opposition piece. This opponents piece is then hit and taken off from the board and can only come back on when the correct number is thrown that permits it back on to the playing board. As a result, each point or position can never be occupied by players of more than one color.
Play continues until later all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board location, that player may resignation removing them in accordance with throwing the exact number on the dice to move them off the Backgammon Board. If one player has not taken off any pieces by the time that player's opponent has removed all fifteen, then the player has lost a "Gammon", which counts for twice or double the normal loss. If the losing player has not removed any pieces and still has pieces on the bar or in the opponent's home board location, then the player has lost a "Backgammon", which counts for triple a normal loss.
How to use the Doubling Cube.
As Backgammon is partly a game of chance, players get to reflect their perceived likelihood of winning by making use of the Doubling Cube.
This permits each player to improve the stakes of the game by increasing the value of the probabilities.
Play starts off at evens or from one. The Doubling Cube then permits them to move to 2, four, eight, 16, 32, and 64.
The opposing player may accept or decline the increase in the Doubling Cube stakes. If they decline they lose the game in accordance with the earlier value of the doubling cube.