Backgammon rules | How To Play Backgammon

Backgammon Rules

How To Play - Backgammon Instructions

Board setup

To play backgammon, you need a backgammon board. There are plenty available at different prices, but it is advisable to choose a solidly-made wooden set, with reasonably large pieces that can be handled easily. Backgammon is not a game limited to any particular age group, so your set should be solid enough to serve you for a lifetime - and to stand some unavoidable abuse. Wooden boards come in various sizes. Some are lined, some unlined; this makes no difference. A medium-sized board, ten to thirteen inches long, is generally the most convenient. A first-time buyer should also check the pieces. They should not be rough or chipped, and their colours should be "pure", that is without any tiny spots or blemishes.

Dice

The ordinaire dice are small cubes 1 to 2 cm along an edge, whose fases are numbered from 1 to 6. It is traditional to assing pairs of numbers that total seven to opposite faces.
Dice are thrown to provide random numbers for gambling and other games and thus are a type of hardware random number generator.
Nowadays the companies that produce dice, have prefected the technics of curving them (each surface) in order for the throw to be "fair".
Dice are thrown, singly or in groups, from the hand or from a cup or box designed for the purpose, onto a flat surface. The face of each die that is uppermost when it comes to rest provides the value of the throw.
They are also frequently used to randomize allowable moves in board games such as Backgammon.

Should your opponent ask to use the same pair of dice as you, there is no reason to refuse. Or he may reasonably ask for the dice to be mixed up. Even if you do not gamble, nothing could more spoil the pleasure of a game than any suspicion of biased equipment. For the same reason, you should insist on the use of dice cups, to guarantee a clean and fair throw. Rolling the dice from the hand is not satisfactory. These may seem small points, but the proper "etiquette" is essential for the enjoyment of any game, especially one depending on dice. To move or bear off your piece you have to use your dice. Each player, in his turn, places his two dice in his dice cup, shakes them (therefore these cups are also called "shakers") and throws them in his right-hand half of the board. If a die jumps off or does not fall flat, the throw must be re-taken. The numbers on the tops of the dice are called the dice roll and regulate how many points you may move your pieces.

First player

To decide who plays first, both players throw one die. (If both are the same, the result is ignored and both throw again - a game cannot start with a double.) The higher number wins and, in most schools, plays the combined numbers of both throws, although in many continental European countries the first player has the option to reject the combined throw and throw again. If a match is played, the winner of the previous game plays first in the next one, unless otherwise agreed.

Special rules

Crowford rule - The Crawford rule is named after J.Caowford, one of the best bridge players of all time. Playing with the crawford rule means that if your opponent is ahead of you, when playing for match, you can't use the doubling cube in the game to come.

Jacoby rule - The Jacoby rule is named after Oswald Jacoby. It is ussualy used in money games.

Holland rule - The holland rule is named after Tim Holland. This rule is nor really played in nowadays. It was common in the 80's, in match games. After the crawford game a player can double only after to rolls played by each side.

A player could lose one, two, or at most three points in a single game, depending on the position of his pieces when his opponent had borne off all his pieces. The doubling cube caused a radical change. And 64 is not the highest possible number! You could go on doubling and re-doubling indefinitely, beyond the 64. The numbers on the doubling cube represent points. So in a single game you could lose any number of points. Some say that the doubling cube "pepped up" the pace of the game, for it enabled the players to resign and start a new game. It is, however, undeniable that it also made backgammon a gambler's paradise. Doubling may be started by either player and may be either "automatic" or "voluntary".

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