Initial Backgammon Setup

The first time that you sit in front of a backgammon board, after you have taken

out all the items, it looks like this (Figure 1):

As you can see there are 24 alternating color points, 6 in each quadrant of the

board. The point of the game is to take out your checkers when they are all located

in the quadrant that is in front of you and at your right hand side.

Therefore, if your checkers are the red ones (figure 2) your point count for the

initial setup should be:

2 checkers in point 24

5 checkers in point 13

3 checkers in point 8

5 checkers in point 6

The motion of the checkers is from right to left for the points from 24 to 13 and

from left to right for the points 12 to 1.

The exact opposite numbering from 1 to 24 will be used by your opponent and his

setup will occupy the exact opposite points from yours (figure 2 – yellow

checkers).

His or her checker motion will also be the exact opposite to yours, i.e. from right to

left for the points from 1 to 12 and from left to right for the points from 13 to 24.

You can see both checker motions on figure 3.

This setup is always the same regardless of any variation of backgammon that you

may play. In the official rules you should roll your dice on the right hand half of

the board and your opponent should roll his on the left.

You can change this setup and reverse it if you are playing at home and both

opponents are left handed. But if you are going to play in a tournament, the rules

do not change and if you are left handed, you will need to play as if you were right

handed.