Few games have as long a shadow as backgammon. It sits on café tables in Istanbul, in living rooms in Chicago, and at renaissance faires where players discover that a game feeling this modern is actually stitched together from two thousand years of history. But the story usually told about it — that it is "the world's oldest game, 5,000 years old" — is a bit too tidy. The honest version is more interesting, and it makes the game on your table feel less like a relic and more like a survivor. Here is where backgammon really comes from, followed by a clear, beginner-friendly guide to the rules.
Where backgammon really comes from
Backgammon belongs to a family of race games — games where you sprint pieces around a track according to dice or lots — and that family is genuinely ancient. Its distant cousins include the Royal Game of Ur from Mesopotamia (roughly 4,600 years ago) and Egyptian Senet, both of which we have written about here. But "cousin" is the right word, not "ancestor." Those games ran on different boards with different rules, and it would be a stretch to call any of them backgammon.
The closer relatives are Roman. The Romans played a game called ludus duodecim scriptorum — the "game of twelve lines" — whose boards had three rows of twelve marks, with each player moving fifteen pieces steered by three dice. It is mentioned as early as Ovid's poetry around the turn of the first century. A later, streamlined descendant called tabula ("the table") dropped to a layout much closer to the two rows of twelve points we use today. One important caution: very little detail about how these games were actually played survived. Much of what you read about ancient rules is careful reconstruction by historians, not settled fact, so treat confident-sounding "this is exactly how Romans played" claims with a grain of salt.
Running in parallel to the east was the Persian game nard, a two-row race game that spread across the medieval Islamic world and is often named as a key link in backgammon's chain. By the time the game reached medieval and early-modern Europe, the board had settled into the familiar shape. The English name "backgammon" only shows up in the 1600s; its exact origin is debated, with the most common guesses tracing it to older words meaning roughly "back game." If you see a source state the etymology as certain, be skeptical — it isn't.
From ancient table to modern board
One of the oldest individual games we can actually point to is a losing position the Byzantine emperor Zeno is said to have suffered around 480 CE, preserved in a later Greek epigram — a reminder that the frustration of a cruel dice roll is at least 1,500 years old. The single biggest modern change came much later: the doubling cube, which lets players raise the stakes mid-game, was introduced in the 1920s in the United States. That one addition turned backgammon from a pleasant race into a game of nerve and timing, and it is why the game is taken so seriously in clubs and tournaments today.
What you need to play
- A board of 24 narrow triangles called points, split into four quadrants of six.
- 30 checkers total — 15 of one color for each player.
- Two dice (each player traditionally uses their own pair and a dice cup).
- A doubling cube — a six-sided die marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. Optional, but standard once you know the game.
The goal
Both players move their checkers around the board in opposite directions toward their own home board (the final quadrant), then bear them off — remove them from the board entirely. The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins the game.
Setting up the board
Picture the points numbered 1 to 24, counting from each player's own home board outward. Each player places their checkers like this:
- Two checkers on the 24-point (the farthest corner).
- Five checkers on the 13-point.
- Three checkers on the 8-point.
- Five checkers on the 6-point.
That is fifteen checkers each, mirrored so the two armies face off in opposite directions. If your set came with a printed diagram, match it — the layout is always the same.
How to play, turn by turn
Each player rolls one die to start; the higher number goes first and, in the traditional rule, plays the two dice just rolled. After that, players alternate, rolling both dice at the start of each turn.
The two dice give you two separate moves. If you roll a 5 and a 3, you may move one checker five points and another three points, or move a single checker three then five (it must be able to stop legally in between). You always move toward your home board, onto lower-numbered points.
A point is open to you unless the opponent has two or more checkers sitting on it. You may pile as many of your own checkers as you like on a point. Doubles are generous: roll two 4s and you get to make four moves of four points each. You must use both dice if there is any legal way to do so; if you can only play one number, you must play the higher one when possible.
Hitting, the bar, and re-entering
A point holding a single checker is called a blot, and it is vulnerable. If your opponent lands on your blot, your checker is hit and sent to the bar (the ridge down the middle). Before you may make any other move, you must bring that checker back into play by entering it in your opponent's home board, using a die that matches an open point there. If both matching points are blocked, you lose your turn and try again next roll. Getting checkers stuck on the bar is how comfortable-looking games fall apart — which is exactly the tension that makes backgammon fun.
Bearing off and winning
Once all fifteen of your checkers have reached your home board, you may start bearing off. A roll lets you remove a checker from the point matching that number — roll a 4, bear off a checker from your 4-point. If you have no checker on a rolled number, you make a legal move within your home board instead; and if the number is higher than your highest occupied point, you bear off from that highest point. If one of your checkers is hit while you are bearing off, you must bring it all the way around and back home before removing any more.
The first player to bear off all fifteen wins. The margin matters for scoring: a normal win is worth one point; a gammon (worth two) is when the loser has not borne off a single checker; and a backgammon (worth three) is when the loser has borne off none and still has a checker in the winner's home board or on the bar.
The doubling cube, briefly
Before rolling on your turn, if you think you are ahead you may propose doubling the stakes by offering the cube. Your opponent either declines and concedes the current stake, or accepts, plays on for double, and takes ownership of the cube so that only they can offer the next double. Knowing when to double — and when to fold — is where the real skill lives. Beginners can safely ignore the cube for a few games and add it once the movement feels natural.
A few beginner tips
- Make points. Two or more checkers on a point build a wall your opponent cannot land on. A row of them — a "prime" — can trap an enemy checker completely.
- Mind your blots. A lone checker deep in enemy territory is a gift waiting to be hit. Cover it or move it on.
- Race when you're ahead, fight when you're behind. If you have the lead, simplify and run home; if you're behind, hang back and hunt for a hit.
Backgammon rewards a beginner faster than almost any classic game: you can learn it in ten minutes and spend years getting good at it. That combination — instantly playable, endlessly deep — is why it has outlived the empires that shaped it.
Ready to play on a board built to last? Explore our handcrafted wooden backgammon set at Ancient.Games — heirloom-quality craftsmanship for a game two thousand years in the making.