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How to play backgammon

Backgammon is a race for two players. Each of you has 15 checkers that move around the board by the roll of two dice. Bring all of yours into your home board, then bear them off. The first player to bear off all 15 wins. On the way you can hit the other player's lone checkers and send them back to the start.

By Emre Özen, updated October 20, 2026. These are the rules our online backgammon game uses. They follow the U.S. Backgammon Federation's "Backgammon Basics: How To Play" and the rules page on bkgm.com, which agree on every rule here.

What you need

A backgammon board, 15 checkers for each player in two colors, a pair of dice for each player, and a doubling cube if you play with it. The cube is a large die marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64.

The board

The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, in four groups of six. The strip down the middle is the bar. Each player numbers the points from their own side: your 1-point is the last point before you take checkers off, and your 24-point is the farthest away. Your 1-point is the other player's 24-point, and so on around the board.

Your home board is your points 1 to 6. Your points 7 to 12 are your outer board. The other player's home board is your points 19 to 24.

The setup

Each player starts with two checkers on their 24-point, five on their 13-point, three on their 8-point and five on their 6-point. In our game you have the white checkers and your home board is at the bottom right.

The starting position, numbered from white's side. White moves from 24 down to 1, then off at the right. Dark moves the other way round.

Count it up and each side starts 167 pips from home. A pip is one point of travel, and the pip count is how far all of your checkers still have to go.

Who goes first

Each player rolls one die. The player with the higher number goes first and plays the two numbers on those dice as the first move. If the numbers are the same, both roll again. After that, players take turns rolling both dice.

Moving

Each die is one move. Roll a 5 and a 3 and you move one checker 5 points and one checker 3 points, or one checker 8 points in two steps. Checkers always move forward, toward your 1-point.
Land only on open points. A point is open unless the other player has two or more checkers on it. You can land on an empty point, on your own checkers, or on a point with just one of the other player's checkers. When one checker moves with both dice, the point it stops on in between has to be open too.
Doubles count twice. Roll two 4s and you have four moves of 4.
Use both dice if you can. You must play both numbers when there is any legal way to. If you can play one number but not both, you must play the larger one. If neither can be played, you lose the turn. With doubles, play as many of the four as you can.

That last rule surprises people. It means you sometimes have to move a checker you'd rather leave alone, because it's the only way to use both dice. Our game works this out for you: it only offers moves that keep the rule, and says why when it refuses one.

Hitting, the bar and coming back in

A lone checker on a point is a blot. If the other player lands on it, it's hit: it goes on the bar and has to start its journey again.

If you have a checker on the bar, bringing it back in comes before anything else. It enters in the other player's home board (your points 19 to 24): a 1 enters on your 24-point, a 2 on your 23-point, and so on up to a 6 on your 19-point. The point has to be open. If neither die lets it in, you lose the whole turn. With two checkers on the bar you must bring both in before moving anything else, and if only one gets in, the rest of the roll is lost.

Bearing off

Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you can start taking them off. That's bearing off.

A die takes off a checker from the point with the same number. A 4 bears off a checker from your 4-point.
If that point is empty, you must use the number to move a checker from a higher point if you can.
If no checkers sit on higher points, the number takes off a checker from your highest point. With checkers only on your 3-point and below, a 6 bears off one from the 3.
You don't have to bear off when another legal move uses the die.
If one of your checkers is hit while you're bearing off, it has to come all the way back to your home board before you can bear off again.

Winning, gammons and backgammons

When the winner bears off the last checker, the loser...	The win is	Points
has borne off at least one checker	A single game	1 times the cube
has borne off no checkers	A gammon	2 times the cube
has borne off no checkers and still has one on the bar or in the winner's home board	A backgammon	3 times the cube

Our game plays one game at a time and keeps a running total of points for you and the computer in Settings.

The doubling cube

The cube raises the stake. A game starts at 1 point, with the cube in the middle. The cube has no 1 on it, so our game shows it at 64 until someone doubles.

At the start of your turn, before you roll, you may offer to double the stake.
The other player chooses. Take: play on for twice the stake, and they now own the cube. Drop (also called pass): give up the game at once and lose the stake as it was before the double.
Only the player who owns the cube can double next. If they do, the cube passes back to the other player. The rules put no limit on redoubles; our game stops at 64, the highest number on the cube.

In our game the cube is off at first. Turn on "Use the doubling cube" in Settings and it starts with your next game.

Optional rules we don't use

Both rule sources list these as optional. Agree on them before you start if you play at home.

Automatic doubles: if the first roll is a tie, the stake doubles and the cube stays in the middle. Players usually limit how many times this can happen.
Beavers: a player who is doubled can redouble at once and keep the cube.
The Jacoby rule: gammons and backgammons count only as a single game unless the cube has been turned.
The Crawford rule is for match play (games to a set number of points): when one player is one point from winning the match, the cube is out of play for one game. We play single games, so it never comes up.

Words you'll hear

Point: One of the 24 triangles. "Making a point" means getting two or more of your checkers on it, so the other side can't land there.
Blot: A single checker alone on a point, which can be hit.
Hit: Landing on a blot and sending it to the bar.
Bar: The strip down the middle. Hit checkers wait there until they come back in.
Enter (come in): Bringing a checker from the bar into the other player's home board.
Home board: Your points 1 to 6. All 15 checkers must be there before you bear off.
Outer board: Your points 7 to 12.
Bear off: Taking checkers off the board once they're all home.
Pip count: The number of points all your checkers still have to travel. Each side starts at 167.
Prime: Several made points in a row. Six in a row can't be passed at all, since no single die moves more than 6.
Anchor: A point you hold in the other player's home board. It gives your back checkers a safe place to stand.
Bar point: Your 7-point, next to the bar.
Gammon, backgammon: A win worth double or triple, when the loser hasn't borne off any checkers (see the table above).
Doubling cube, take, drop: The die that raises the stake, accepting a double, and giving up instead.

Ready? Start a game against the computer, or read our backgammon strategy first.

Sources

U.S. Backgammon Federation, Education Team, "Backgammon Basics: How To Play", usbgf.org (the setup, movement, the bar, bearing off, doubling, gammons and backgammons, and the optional rules).
"Backgammon Rules", bkgm.com (Backgammon Galore): the same rules, including how points are numbered from each player's side and that bearing off is optional when another legal move exists.

Keep playing

Rules for similar games: cribbage rules, farkle rules and dominoes rules.