Use Your Backgammon Dice Correctly

The backgammon game comes from a long line of tabula games which require a specific board and dice to be able to play. The backgammon dice are used to determine the starting player and to move around the board.

Each player receives one of the backgammon dice at the beginning of any game. The players roll their die and the player with the highest number rolled goes first. The numbers displayed are the numbers that the first player will use for their opening move. From this point forward, each backgammon player will roll two dice to determine by the number of moves made.

The most common mistake made by the novice backgammon player is that they only move their checkers the total number of points of the combined dice rolled. The backgammon dice each refer to a single move made. Therefore, each dice is the move made by one checker. So, if a backgammon player rolls a 6 and a 2, the backgammon player will move one checker to the sixth point and one checker to the second point on from the current position.

A single checker can be moved the total number of the backgammon dice, but must be separated into two separate moves. This is to indicate clearly that the first move was valid and landing on an open point. So, with the same roll as outlined above, the point must be free at two and then six points (or six and then two points) ahead for the backgammon player to be able to move a single checker. Now you understand how the backgammon dice affect the moves made, you can go on to play a better game.