Learning How to Play Backgammon

Backgammon has always been a very popular game. Throughout history, even though the game had been banned by the churches several times, the game always managed to resurface. Perhaps the entertainment value and the simplicity of the game has something to do with its emergence. Today, the game has been spreading like wild fire throughout the Internet.

Playing a game of backgammon on the Internet is always easy. You don’t have to worry about the setup. A traditional game of backgammon requires the players to setup a board with 30 pieces of discs. These discs are usually in black and white colors, signifying opposition. Each player will have 15 discs.

At first glance, the board looks complicated to setup. But in reality, it is not so. It only takes a couple of minutes to set the board up for play. The board is made up of 24 triangles on each side. There is the home board, and then there is the outer board. Usually, if you refer to the instructions included in the game, the triangles are labeled 1 to 24. This will help you to place the discs. If you are white, you will place 5 discs on the farthest triangle on the home table, 3 discs on the nearest triangle on the outer table, 5 discs again on the nearest triangle on black’s outer table, and finally 2 discs on the farthest triangle on black’s home table. For the other player, just do the opposite.

The setup sounds confusing because it is challenging to describe the setup using words. A proper diagram will do a much better job. However, if you are playing the game on the Internet, you don’t have to worry about the setup at all. The game will start with the discs in place. All you have to do is to start rolling the dice.

Backgammon only requires three items to play – a board with 24 triangles, 30 discs, and 2 6-sided dice. The game will start by having both players throwing the dice to determine who goes first. The one with the larger number can start the game. The game starts officially when a player rolls the set of dice. Based on the numbers on the dice, the player can move 1 or a pair of discs. If you choose to move 2 discs instead of 1, then each disc moves according to the value of 1 die.

The goal, is to be the first player to move all 15 discs back to the home table. As the game progresses, players move their discs in a counter-clockwise direction. However, they cannot just land their discs anywhere they like. Discs must land on empty points, points that only have their own discs, or points with only 1 opponent disc. When a disc returns to the home point, it is taken off the board.

Backgammon does require a little bit of skill because as a player, you have to decide whether to move 1 disc or 2 discs during each turn. But a large part of the game is based on luck. That’s because the game depends on the values of the dice with each roll. If lady luck is smiling on you, you can win the game very quickly and easily!

This game is a very fun and entertaining game that is easy to pick up and play. Join a game online and try it out for yourself. On the Internet, the game becomes really simply because the computer does most of the work for you!