How to play Backgammon

On your turn you must choose which checkers you wish to move. You move the number of spaces indicated by the numbers you roll on the 2 dice. You may use each die independantly, and move 2 different checkers, or use both dice to move a single checker the total rolled. If you roll a double you may use each die twice, so a roll of 5 and 5 means you have a total of 20 points to use. You must use as much of your roll as legally possible.

Checkers can only be moved to an 'open' point (an empty point, a point containing your own checkers, or a point containing a single opponents checker). If you land on an an opponents checker, then it is called a 'blot' and the opponent checker is placed on the 'bar' (the strip inbetween the 2 halves of the game board)

If you have a checker on the bar you must enter it back onto the board before you can make other moves. You can enter a checker onto any of the 6 open points in your starting quarter of the board, only if you roll a number corresponding to that point on your dice.

To win the game you must 'bear off' your checkers. You can only do this once all your checkers have reached the final quarter of the board. The numbers on the final quarter are numbered 1-6 and when you roll the dice, you may remove one checker from each point which you have rolled the correct number for.

The game finishes when one player has successfully removed all their checkers from the board.