Games · Full roadmap · ~80 min read · 23 steps
🎲Backgammon for beginners
Learn to set up, play, and win games of backgammon with confidence
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Unit 1
Start here
Course overview
What backgammon actually is
A race you can interfere with
The board and the four quadrants
24 points in four tables
The starting position
Where the 15 checkers begin
Which way you move
Always toward your 1-point
Unit 2
Rolling and using both dice
Two dice, two separate moves
Doubles give you four moves
Rolling a pair quadruples it
Bearing off, the finish line
Removing checkers from your home board
Making a point
Two checkers lock a point
Hitting and the bar
Land on a blot, send it back
Unit 3
Entering from the bar
You must come in before anything else
The 5-point and the bar point
The two most valuable points to make
Blots and reading risk
Counting the ways you get hit
The prime, a wall they cannot pass
Six points in a row trap a checker
Pip counting
Measuring who is winning the race
Unit 4
Types of game
Four game plans to recognize
The doubling cube
Raising the stakes mid-game
Take or drop: the 25 percent rule
When accepting a double is correct
Match play, money play, and the Crawford rule
Two ways to keep score
Common opening rolls
Strong first moves to memorize
Unit 5
Common beginner mistakes
The errors that cost the most
A practice routine
How to actually get better
Where to go next
Where to go next