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MOVING THE CHECKERS - Backgammon
Where to play Backgammon:
1. Play65TM International: Arabic Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Italian Japanese Norwegian Russian Spanish Swedish Turkish
2. Gammon Empire
3. Poker.com has Backgammon
4. PartyGammon from PartyPoker
The key objective of Backgammon is to bring the checkers (or the men, as they may also be called), home and to bear them off the board before the opponent does. Each player has 15 checkers, and their moves are determined by the throw of the dice.
A set of rules has been defined for governing these movements. The rules are generally standardized, however there may be a slight variance depending upon the tournament or the controlling authorities, which need to be taken care of additionally.
How to move a checker and where to move it to:
We suggest you move your checkers in pairs. The reason is very simple. If your one single checker is sitting on a point and your opponent places one of their checkers in the same point, then your checker will be removed and placed on the Bar. This situation is known as a ‘blot’ and any single checker is vulnerable to a hit, which means it will be placed on the bar. If any of your checkers are placed on the bar then not only are you under the obligation of moving the same checker first before any other, however the checker also has to be placed on the furthest point from the home board.
Ways out:
1) Move checkers in pairs
2) If you have to move one checker to an open point, try to reach the second checker as soon as possible.
3) You may place a checker on a point which already holds two or more opponents’ checkers.
We also advise you to try to take ‘control’ of a point by placing two checkers to create a ‘block’ of your own. This will prevent the opponent’s checkers from landing on your point and will stop you from being hit.
The bottom line is that two checkers of different colours cannot stay on the same point.
Prime:
If you are in a position whereby you occupy six points in a row then it is called a prime. The advantage of this move is that your opponent cannot move out from behind a prime. Therefore, if you can set a prime in your opponent’s home board, it will restrain the opponent’s movement to a great extent.
Bearing off in a nutshell:
You can start bearing off only when you have been able to move all your checkers into your home board. Remember, you must complete bear off before your opponent. You may be rewarded gammon or backgammon depending upon the number of checkers of the opponent when you complete bearing off.
Please note that the moves stated above are for a standard game of backgammon. They don’t take into consideration double or re-double rolls.
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