Backgammon is a 2-Player game. The object of Backgammon is to clear all your checkers off the board first. If you do, then you win! You must accomplish this by moving your checkers into your home board and then bear them off the board.

The Backgammon board consists of 24 triangles which alternate in colour. These triangles are called points. They are grouped in 4 quadrants of 6 triangles each and are called the home board or outer board. Separating these “boards” is a ridge down the centre of the board called a bar. The points are numbered. There are 30 checkers (15 of one colour and 15 of another colour). Each Player has 1 set of 15 checkers which are arranged as follows:

• 2 checkers on each Player’s point numbered 24
• 5 checkers on each Players point numbered 13
• 3 checkers on each Player’s point numbered 8
• 5 checkers on each Player’s point numbered 6

There is also a doubling cube which is used to keep track of the stake. It has the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces.

To move your checkers forward, you must roll the dice. The number rolled is the number of spaces you must move. Checkers can only be moved to open points with one or no opposing checkers. Each die indicates a separate move. In the case of doubles, a Player must play the numbers shown on the dice twice.

At PrimeBackGammon.com there are 2 types of game modes - single game and series. In the Single game, the loser pays the winner the agreed inital sum multiplied by the value of the doubling cube and again by the winning type. In the Match play, a series of backgammon games is played between 2 Players and ends when the agreed and set number of points is achieved by a Player. For each game, the number of points won is the doubling cube value multiplied by the win type.

At PrimeBackGammon, Players play for an agreed wager or in the case of tournament play agreed number of points. During the game, a Player may propose to double the game sum. This can only be done when it is the Player’s turn but before he/she rolls the dice. A Player, who is offered a double, may refuse in which case he will pay the original wager or, if he accepts the double, he must keep playing for the new higher sum. A player, who accepts a double, becomes the owner of the cube and only that player may make the next double. Redoubles are also common. They are subsequent doubles in the same game and they can increase the original wager by up to 64 times.

When playing PrimeBackGammon, 2 types of timers are involved - a move time and a global timer. The Move timer shows the time left to make a move and is reset after each move. When the move timer expires, the Global timer begins to move. It is set for the duration of the game.

Master the basics of backgammon and enjoy the thrill of winning.