Backgammon
Authority: World Backgammon Federation (WBF) Rules
Backgammon is played on a board of 24 triangular points. Each player starts with 15 checkers: 2 on their 24-point, 5 on their 13-point, 3 on their 8-point, and 5 on their 6-point. Players race checkers around the board using two dice per turn; the first to bear off all 15 wins.
| Parameter / Specification | Standard Value | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Total Board Points | 24 | triangular points |
| Checkers per Player | 15 | checkers |
| Dice Rolled per Turn | 2 | six-sided dice |
History & Origin
Backgammon belongs to the 'tables' family of race games, whose roots run back roughly 5,000 years to games like the Royal Game of Ur. The Romans played a close relative, Ludus duodecim scriptorum, on a board of three 12-point rows using three dice, and by the reign of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476-491) a game called Tabula already used the now-familiar layout of 24 points, 12 to a side, with 15 counters per player. Tables games spread through medieval Europe -- reaching France by the 11th century, Germany by the 12th, and Iceland by the 13th -- with King Alfonso X's 1283 manuscript Libro de los Juegos among the earliest to record their rules in detail.
The word 'backgammon' itself first appears in a 1647 letter by James Howell, spelled 'Baggammon,' likely combining 'back' with the Middle English 'gamen' (game).
Codifying the Modern Game
The first known published rules came from Francis Willoughby in 1672, followed by Charles Cotton in 1674, and then Edmond Hoyle's influential 1753 A Short Treatise on the Game of Back-Gammon -- the ancestor of the 'Hoyle's Rules' name still associated with tabletop games today. The doubling cube, which lets either player raise the stakes mid-game, was introduced in New York gambling clubs in the 1920s and remains one of backgammon's defining strategic elements.
A 1960s revival led by Prince Alexis Obolensky, who organized the first international tournament in March 1964, turned backgammon into a serious competitive game worldwide. Since 2018, the World Backgammon Federation has set the rules for international tournament play, with the UK Backgammon Federation's tournament rules adopted by the WBF in full.