Fundex Games 5392, Backgammon manual BACKGAMMON Players

BACKGAMMON

Players: 2

Equipment: “Backgammon” Game Board, 15 Black Disks, 15 Red Disks and Pair of Dice

Object: Be the first player to move all your tokens (stones) around the points on the game board to your home table (your inner table) and “bear them off” (remove them from the game board). Usually, several games are played, with the winner of each game earning points–the first to reach a score of 10 points wins the match.

Set-up:15 black tokens, 15 red tokens. Players choose to be the black or white and then set up the game board as shown below. The game tokens in backgammon are re- ferred to as “stones.” Each player rolls a die to determine who has the first move, ties are rerolled. The player with the highest num-ber will begin the game by using the two high numbers of the dice that were just cast by himself and his opponent.

Moving Stones: Count begins on point next to one on which a stone rests. In general, a player moves the stones one at a time along the points in a loop that extends from his opponent’s 1-point to his own 1-point. The opponent’s stones travel in the opposite direction. Dice advance a stone forward the rolled number of points and the stone comes to rest at the base of the point. A player can move two stones, one for each die, or a single token twice, once for each die. A player can choose to use only one die, but it must be the highest count die. If a player rolls doubles, they are doubled again. (example: a 5-5 becomes a 5-5-5-5 which equals four separate moves). There is no limit to the number of stones belonging to the same player that may rest on one point. A point housing two or more stones of the same player is BLOCKED against an opponent, and his stones may not land on that point, although it may be jumped. When a player cannot move because of blocked points he loses the move.

Blots: A single stone resting on a point is a BLOT; an opponent may land on the point and HIT the blot, which sends it to the bar at the center of the board. A stone on the Bar must start over on his opponent’s 1-point. This stone on the Bar must reenter his opponent’s inner table before making another move. He cannot enter on a blocked point. Two or more blots may be hit in one play.

Bearing Off: When either player succeeds in moving all of his stones around the board to his inner table, he starts to “bear off” (remove) stones from points corresponding to the dice thrown. The player can either move a stone within his inner table or bear it off. For example, a 1-2 that is rolled, may be used to bear off a stone from the 1-point and the 2-point, or the player may choose to move a stone from the 3-point to the 6-point. When casting a number higher than any point covered, a stone from the highest point may bear off, but he cannot bear off a stone if the point indicated is vacant and there is a stone on a higher counting point. If, while bearing off, a token is HIT, the player’s stone goes to the Bar and must reenter in the usual way. This stone must travel all around the board to his inner table again before more stones can be moved or taken off.

Doubling: The doubling cube (the die w/numbers) changes winners’ scores dramatically; therefore, games are played to 20 or 50 or more points. At the beginning of the game the doubling die is neutral and is placed face up on the 64. At any time during the game a player can turn it so that the 2 is face up and offer it as a ”bet” to his opponent, raising the stakes of the game. If the bet is accepted by the opponent, the game is now worth 2 points to the winner (instead of the standard 1 point). If the opponent rejects the bet, he forfeits the game and his opponent earns 1 point. If the opponent accepted the bet, he now has the right to double the bet to a 4 later in the game and in turn, the opponent must choose to accept or forfeit. This scenario may continue indefinitely but there are usually not more than four or five in any game. The points increase as follows: 2,4,8,16,32, etc.

Winning: The winner of the game is the first player to remove all his stones from the board. If the loser has not borne off any of his stones, it is called a GAMMON and the stakes of the game are doubled. If the loser still has stones on the winner’s home table, it is called a BACKGAMMON and the game stakes triple. This includes stakes raised by doubling.

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