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Backgammon is a mixture of skill and luck.
It is a game for 2 players with 15 checkers each on a board consisting of 24 colored triangiar spaces known as points. The board has 4 sections: home board and outer board, and the opponent's home board and outer board, the home and outer boards are divided by a section that runs through the middle of the board know as the bar. Two dice are rolled to determine the amount of points the checkers are moved to. The players attempt to be the first to bring all their checkers onto their home section and bear them off before his opponent does, at times employing the strategy of hitting and blocking their opponents checkers to slow them down.
The points on the board are numbered for each player starting in that player's home board. The furthest point is the twenty-fourth point, which is also the opponent's first point. Each player has fifteen checkers of his own color. To start the checkers are arranged as: two on each player's twenty-fourth point, five on each player's thirteenth point, three on each player's eighth point, and five on each player's sixth point.
To begin the game, each player throws a single die which determines which player will take the first turn and how many points they will move. If an equal numbers come up, then both players roll again until they roll different numbers. The player that throws the highest number moves his checkers according to the numbers on both dice. After the first roll, the players throw two dice and alternate turns.
A checker may be moved only to an open point; one that does not contain two or more of the opponent’s checkers.
The numbers on the two dice constitute separate moves. For example, if a player rolls 5 and 3, he may move one checker five spaces to an open point and another checker three spaces to an open point, or he may move the one checker a total of eight spaces to an open point, but only if the intermediate point (either three or five spaces from the starting point) is also open.
A player who rolls doubles plays the numbers shown on the dice twice. A roll of 6 and 6 means that the player has four sixes to use, and so he can move any combination of checkers.
A player must try to use all the numbers of a roll if this is legally possible, if only one number can be played, the player must play that number and forfeit the other one. If neither number can be used, the player loses his turn. In the case of doubles, when all four numbers cannot be played, the player must play as many numbers as he can.
Hitting and Entering: A point occupied by a single checker of either color is called a blot. If an opposing checker lands on a blot, the blot is hit and placed on the bar.
Any time a player has one or more checkers on the bar, he must first re-enter those checker(s) into the opposing home board (effectively staring from the beginning) A checker is entered by moving it to an open point corresponding to one of the numbers on the rolled dice. For example, if a player rolls 4 and 6, he may enter a checker onto either the opponent's four point or six points, so long as the prospective point is not occupied by two or more of the opponent's checkers, if they are then the player loses his turn.
Bearing Off: Once a player has moved all of his fifteen checkers into his home board, he may begin bearing off. A player bears off a checker by rolling a number that corresponds to the point on which the checker resides, and then removing that checker from the board; i.e. rolling a 6 allows the player to remove a checker from the sixth point.
If there is no checker on the point indicated by the roll, the player must make a legal move using a checker on a higher-numbered point. If there are no checkers on higher-numbered points, the player is permitted (and required) to remove a checker from the highest point on which one of his checkers resides. A player is under no obligation to bear off if he can make an otherwise legal move.
A player must have all of his active checkers in his home board in order to bear off. If a checker is hit during the bear-off process, the player must bring that checker back to his home board before continuing to bear off. The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins the game.
Doubling: Backgammon is played for an agreed stake per point. Each game starts at one point. During the course of the game, a player who feels he has a sufficient advantage may propose doubling the stakes. He may do this only at the start of his own turn and before he has rolled the dice.
A player who is offered a double may refuse, in which case he concedes the game and pays one point. Otherwise, he must accept the double and play on for the new higher stakes. A player who accepts a double becomes the owner of the cube and only he may make the next double. Subsequent doubles in the same game are called redoubles. If a player refuses a redouble, he must pay the number of points that were at stake prior to the redouble. Otherwise, he becomes the new owner of the cube and the game continues at twice the previous stakes. There is no limit to the number of redoubles in a game.
Gammons and Backgammons: At the end of the game, if the losing player has borne off at least one checker, he loses only the value showing on the doubling cube (one point, if there have been no doubles). However, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers, he is gammoned and loses twice the value of the doubling cube. Or, worse, if the loser has not borne off any of his checkers and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, he is backgammoned and loses three times the value of the doubling cube.
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