A checker may not move onto a point occupied by two or more of the opponent’s checkers. If the same checker is used for both parts of a move, then the first part of the move must also be to a point not occupied by two or more of the opponent’s checkers. Let us look at the first few moves of a typical game. White rolls a four and Black rolls a three in the starting position. White has several possible moves and might decide to make the move shown in diagram 2:
If a checker moves onto a point occupied by a single checker of the opponent, the latter is ‘hit’ and is immediately placed on the bar (the central strip dividing the two halves of the board). The hitting checker replaces the hit checker on that point. A solitary checker which can be hit is known as a ‘blot’. Continuing from the above diagram, Black rolls a six and a three in reply to the opening 4–3. She can hit the white checker as shown in diagram 3 overleaf.
If one or more checkers have been hit and are on the bar, then such checkers must be entered before any other checkers may be moved. This is done by rolling a number corresponding to a point in the opponent’s home board not occupied by two or more
Diag. 3
of the opponent’s checkers. Say the game continues with White rolling a 6–1, as shown below. The home boards are indicated, and the points in Black’s home board are numbered from one to six. As the six-point is occupied by two or more of Black’s checkers, the first move must be to enter the checker from the bar with the one. With the six, White continues with the same checker:
Diag. 4
After the opening roll, if the numbers rolled on the two dice are the same, the player is said to have rolled a double. When a double is rolled, the player makes four separate moves of the number shown, one or more ofwhich can be with the same checker. Again all moves or parts of moves must be to points not occupied by two or more of the opponent’s checkers, and up to four checkers may be hit and placed on the bar.
Incomplete or Forfeited Moves
A player must move both numbers on the dice if it is possible to do so. Often a player cannot move at all. This most frequently happens when he is on the bar and the numbers rolled correspond to points that the opponent has made in his board. Sometimes the player is not on the bar, but there is no legal way to play either of the numbers on the dice. In all of these cases, the player misses a turn and the opponent rolls. If a player can play only one number on the dice, but not both, then any move can be made for that number.
NOTE: Rarely, either number can be played (but not both). In this case, the higher number must be played.
When a player has all of his remaining checkers in his home board, then he may begin to remove checkers. A checker may be removed from the point (using the same numbering system as diagram 4) corresponding to a number shown on one die. If the number rolled on either die corresponds to a vacant point, and a player has no checker on a higher-numbered point, then a checker must be borne off from the highest-numbered point. If, however, the player does have a checker on a higher- numbered point, then a move must be made within the player’s board without bearing off. It should be noted that there is no obligation to bear off a checker, and on occasions it may be better to move a checker within the board, even though a checker could be borne off. In diagram 5 White rolls a 6–3. With the six he must bear off a checker from the five-point, as he has no checker on the six-point. With the three, he is unable to bear off a checker, as the three-point is empty and he still has checkers on higher-numbered points. He must therefore move the three from the five- or four-point as he prefers. One other important point is that if a player has a checker (or checkers)
Diag. 5
hit after he has started bearing off, then all such checkers must re-enter the opponent’s home board and move round to the player’s home board before the bear-off can resume.
Scoring
The scoring of the game is important. The first player to remove all his checkers is the winner. If the loser has removed at least one checker, the winner gets one point. If the loser has not removed any checkers, then a gammon is scored. This is worth two points. Finally, if the loser still has a checker in the winner’s home board or on the bar, and has not removed any checkers when the winner removes his final checker, then a backgammon is scored. This is worth three points.
NOTE: There are some variants of backgammon in which the starting position, rules and scoring are different
