Backgammon: Taking Turns and Moving Checkers
Backgammon is the oldest recorded board game with evidence dating back to the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia. The Greeks and the Romans were known to have played it. It is a fun game of skill and luck, enjoyed even long, long time ago. A game of skill because of the way you will move the checker to generate advantage. It is a game of luck because of the dice.
In order to play backgammon you must have the necessary supplies such as game board, checkers, doubling cube, and two dice. With that ready we can proceed with the game. On which player gets first, the roll of a dice determines it. Both players throw the die and whoever gets the higher number gets to move his or her checkers first.
There is an old rule that the result of the first roll will determine the first player's moves. The second player will have to disregard the result of the first roll. The second player will use two dice to determine his or her move during his turn. But it could be decided that the old rule is disregarded and the first player would also roll the two dice to know the moves allowed.
When both players roll the same number, they will have to roll the die again. For a continuing backgammon game, the winner of the previous game is given preference to start the new game.
The first and second player will alternate taking turns in rolling the dice and moving the checkers. At the start of each turn, player will place the two dice on a dice shaker. Or they could get away with the shaker and do the rolling by hand. On right side of the backgammon board is where the dice should land. The dice must fall flat on that side of the board or it will be rolled again when it lands on an angle or jumps out of the board.
Two sets of two dice (four dice in all) can be used in a game. Each player will be using exclusively two of the four dice. For backgammon game played with real money, two dice are to be used by both players instead of four. This is preferred so as to prevent cheating and avoid suspicion.
The movement of your checker will depend on its color. Black or dark checkers move counter-clockwise while white or light checkers move clockwise.
Players will take turns in moving the checkers until all of the checkers are on the home board or inner board. If you get to move the pieces first at the start of the game, you are an advantage. So at the start make it good to roll the higher value to begin first.