Open any backgammon book, annotated match, or analysis screen and you will meet lines like 31: 8/5 6/5 or 13/7* 7/5. The notation looks cryptic for about ten minutes, then becomes second nature. Here is the complete system: how the points are numbered, how moves are written, and how the doubling cube shows up in a game record.
The 24 points are numbered from each player's own perspective. Your 1-point is the last point in your home board, where checkers bear off; your 24-point is the far corner where your two back checkers begin. Movement always runs from high numbers to low: 24 toward 1, then off.
The mirror is the part that trips people up: your 1-point is your opponent's 24-point, your 5-point is their 20-point, and so on (the numbers always sum to 25). So when a book says "White anchors on Black's 5-point," from White's own numbering that anchor sits on the 20-point. Published positions and problems are conventionally shown from the perspective of the player on roll, so the numbers in a diagram belong to whoever has the dice.
The dice come first, usually as two digits: 31 or 3-1 means you rolled a 3 and a 1. Doubles are written the same way: 66 or 6-6. A full move line pairs the roll with the play, for example 31: 8/5 6/5.
Each checker movement is written from-point/to-point:
24/13 a checker runs from the 24-point to the 13-point (a 6 and a 5 by one checker, often written as the single journey).8/5 6/5 two different checkers land on the 5-point, making it. This is the famous best play of the opening 3-1, and you will see it constantly in the opening moves guide.13/7* the asterisk marks a hit: the checker landed on an enemy blot on the 7-point and sent it to the bar.6/1(2) the parenthesis counts checkers: two checkers moved from the 6-point to the 1-point. With doubles you may see 13/9(4), four checkers each moving the same distance.bar/22 a checker re-enters from the bar onto the 22-point (entering with a 3, since entry numbers count down from 25 in your numbering).6/off a checker bears off from the 6-point. Some sources write 6/0.13/7*/5 a single checker moves twice with the two dice, hitting on the way: 13 to 7 with a hit, then 7 to 5.Two small conventions complete the set: when a player cannot move at all, the record shows no play (sometimes written (no play) after the roll), and segments of one turn are simply separated by spaces.
Doubling cube actions appear between rolls, in plain words or compact shorthand:
Doubles to 2. Takes. one side offers the cube at 2, the other accepts and play continues.Doubles to 4. Passes. the double is declined and the game ends at the cube's previous value.D/T (double, take), D/P (double, pass), and ND (no double).If any of those decisions feel mysterious, the doubling cube guide explains the logic behind them; notation only records the choices.
Here are the first two moves of a game, exactly as a match record would show them:
White 31: 8/5 6/5 White makes the 5-point, the strongest first play in the game.Black 64: 24/18 13/9 Black runs a back checker to the 18-point and brings a builder down to the 9-point.White 42: 8/4 6/4 White makes the 4-point. Two home-board points after two rolls; the attack is forming.Notice you can replay the whole sequence on a board, or in your head, from nothing but those lines. That is the point of notation: a complete game fits in a few dozen characters per turn.
Notation is the language of improvement. Books, problem collections, annotated championship matches, and every analysis engine speak it. When the computer says your play of 24/18 13/9 was an error and 24/14 was right, you want to see both plays instantly. It also lets you discuss positions with other players without a board, and follow along when stronger players talk through a game. Pair it with a pip count habit and you can read a position the way musicians read a score.
The fastest way to absorb notation is to watch your own games rendered in it. On Backgammon Battles, every match comes with free move-by-move computer analysis, with each play and cube decision written in standard notation right next to its evaluation. Within a session or two you stop translating and just read.
Free ranked matches with provably fair dice, and free analysis that shows every play in standard notation.
Play backgammon freeA play of 3-1: one checker from the 8-point to the 5-point, another from the 6-point to the 5-point, making the 5-point. Moves are written from-point/to-point.
A hit. 13/7* means the checker landed on an enemy blot on the 7-point and sent it to the bar.
Each player counts from their own side: 1 is where they bear off, 24 is where their back checkers start. Your 1-point is your opponent's 24-point, and diagrams are numbered for the player on roll.
See the openings written in notation →
Understand the cube decisions behind D/T →
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