How to play backgammon
Object of the game
Each player should bring all his men into his home board, and then to bear them off the board. The first player to get all his men off the board is the winner.
Starting the game
The game randomly chooses the player who moves first by throwing one die for each player. The player who rolls the higher number starts the game and uses the two dice which were thrown as their first roll. If both dice are the same then the dice are re-rolled. Thus it is never possible to start the game with doubles.
Moving your checkers
Each player starts out with fifteen colored disks called men. One player controls the white men, and the other player controls the black ones. A player's men may only move one direction around the board, with each player moving in opposite directions. A man may move past a point occupied by the opponent's men, but may not land on a point which contains two or more men of the opposing color. A man may land on a point containing any number of its own men. A lone man on a point is vulnerable to being landed on by an opponent's man. When that happens, the man that previously occupied the point is removed to the bar.
Doubles
Backgammon is played for an agreed stake per point. Each game starts at one point. During the course of the game, a player who feels he has a sufficient advantage may propose doubling the stakes. He may do this only at the start of his own turn and before he has rolled the dice. where a player cannot make a legal move and therefore forfeits his turn.
Bearing off
Bearing off is the final phase of the backgammon game – removing your pieces from the backgammon board. You cannot begin to bear off until all of your pieces are in your inner board. As with normal moves, you bear off according to the roll of the dice, always from the highest occupied point in your inner table.
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