Every backgammon game starts from the same position, and once you have set it up a few times it takes about thirty seconds. Here is the starting position point by point, how the points are numbered, which way the checkers travel, and the setup mistakes that trip up beginners most often.
A backgammon board has 24 narrow triangles called points, arranged in four quadrants of six points each. A raised ridge down the middle, the bar, divides the board in half. Each player has fifteen checkers of one color, two dice, and a shared doubling cube that starts in the middle showing 64.
From your seat, the four quadrants are: your home board (points 1 to 6), your outer board (points 7 to 12), your opponent's outer board (points 13 to 18), and your opponent's home board (points 19 to 24). Points are numbered from each player's own perspective, so your 1-point is your opponent's 24-point. Both home boards sit on the same side of the bar, facing each other. By tradition that side is the one nearest the light, but in casual play either side works as long as both players agree.
Each player sets up their fifteen checkers like this, counting from their own perspective:
Your opponent does exactly the same from their side. Because each player's 24-point is the other player's 1-point, the finished setup is perfectly symmetrical: every stack of yours faces an identical enemy stack across the board. If the board does not look mirrored when you finish, something is off.
Both players move from higher numbers to lower numbers from their own point of view: from the 24-point, around through the outer boards, into the home board, and finally off the board. That means the two armies travel in opposite directions around a horseshoe-shaped track, passing through each other along the way. All that contact in the middle is where hitting, blocking, and most of the game's drama happens. If you are brand new to the rules of movement, hitting, and bearing off, start with our guide on how to play backgammon.
A few errors come up again and again with new players:
There is a neat arithmetic check. In a correct starting position, each player's pip count, the total distance all fifteen checkers must travel to bear off, is exactly 167: two checkers times 24, plus five times 13, plus three times 8, plus five times 6. If you ever want certainty that a physical board is set up right, that number settles it.
Once the board is set, each player rolls one die. The higher roll goes first and plays both numbers shown, and from there the full rules take over. It is worth learning the strongest replies to that first roll early, since the opening moves are one of the few parts of backgammon with a known best answer.
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Play backgammon freeEach player places 2 checkers on their 24-point, 5 on their 13-point, 3 on their 8-point, and 5 on their 6-point. The two setups mirror each other, and both home boards sit on the same side of the bar.
Each player moves from their 24-point toward their 1-point, from higher numbers to lower from their own perspective. The two players travel in opposite directions toward their own home boards.
Two on the 24-point, five on the 13-point, three on the 8-point, and five on the 6-point, for fifteen checkers per player. A correct setup gives each side a starting pip count of 167.
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