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Backgammon 101: And Introduction to Backgammon

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games known in existence. It is about 5,000 yrears old, and was even referred to in one of Plato's writings. It became popular in England and France in the 1600s, and was brought to the New World by the Puritans. it was described by Edmund Hoyle in 1743, the man who also created a book on the rules and history of backgammon. The game rose to popularity in the 1930s in the US, when official rules were set by Wheaton Vaughan and others.

Backgammon is a game played by two persons on a square or rectagular board. The board is split into two equal halves by the bar. One side is designated as the inner table and the other side is called the outer table.

Triangles that project from the side of the board towards the center are twelve elonaged triangles called points. Each player has a set containing 15 pieces, called men, stone, or counters. Each set has a different color, usually black and red or red and white. All 30 pieces are placed on the board at the start of the game.

Other equipment include two dice cups, four dice, a doubling cube which bears the numbers 2,4,8,16, 32, 64, and used to double the bet.

Rules The object of the game is to become the first player to move all 15 pieces into the inner table and then remove them from the board completely. Play commences with each player throwing the single die. The player who rolls the higher number moves first by playing the numbers on both dice. After that each player in turn rolls the dice, which is counted separately and used to move one or two men accordign to the strategy of the player.

when two or more nem belong to the player at the same point, they are safe from being attacked by the opponent, and the opposing player's pieces may not stop at that point, regardless of what numbers a roll of the dice produces.

Wwhen a point is occupied buy a single man, this is called a blot, an an opponent's pices can land on that blot, and thus remove that blot, placed on the bar and made to start over. At this point that player with the piece on the bar cannot move until the piece on the bar enters the board again, and if the count corresponding to the roll of the dice should prevent the piece from re-entering the table, the player losses his turn.