The Basics

Backgammon Rules by Michael Strato - There are many different games you can play on a backgammon board, each with its own set of rules and initial starting positions, but what we can call “Standard Backgammon” is the version of the game played the most; at home, international backgammon tournaments and on Internet play sites. Read these Backgammon Rules and you will quickly learn how to play this wonderful board game of skill and luck.

A Brief History of Backgammon by Michael Strato - The oldest and greatest of games, Backgammon has a long and very intriguing history – it has been known by many different names and variants for more than 5,000 years! Archaeological evidence unearthed in the year 2004 – specifically the oldest known board, made of ebony with playing pieces of agate and turquoise stone – shows that a variant of the game was first played about 5,200 years ago in the legendary Burnt City of the Sistan-Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran. The second oldest backgammon board, about 5,000 years old, was discovered...

BACKGAMMON JARGON by Michael Strato - Terminology: A Glossary of Backgammon Terms A Accept a Double: To take an offer of the doubling cube and agree to continue playing the game for twice the current stakes. Ace: The number 1 on a die. Ace Point: The 1 point in a player’s home board. Ace Point Game: A late-game situation where a player has checkers on his opponent’s 1 point (Ace Point) and is waiting for a chance to hit a blot his opponent might leave during the bearing in or bearing off stage of the game. Acey-Deucey: A variant...

Backgammon Variants by Michael Strato - There are a myriad of exciting games one can play on a backgammon board and if you’re keen on it you can even invent one of your own. Variants can be played with fewer checkers, alternate setups or even with all the checkers starting off the board. With some variants, checkers are frozen on points instead of hit and put on the bar, and the rules can vary in other ways, such as dice roll combinations may have a special bonus feature in which you get to roll again.