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Setup

The board is twenty-four narrow triangles called points, in two facing rows of twelve. Each player has fifteen checkers, laid out the same way: two on your twenty-four point, five on your thirteen, three on your eight and five on your six. The two players move in opposite directions, each bearing toward their own home board.

Both players roll one die; the higher roll goes first and plays the two dice that were just rolled.

Moving

Roll two dice and move checkers that many points — one checker the total, or two checkers the individual numbers. Doubles are played twice over, so a double four is four moves of four. You may only land on a point that is empty, has your own checkers, or holds exactly one enemy checker.

Landing on a lone enemy checker hits it: it goes on the bar and must re-enter in the opponent's home board before they do anything else. If you cannot use a roll at all, you forfeit it.

Bearing off and winning

Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you start bearing them off — a roll of five takes a checker off the five point, and so on. First player to bear off all fifteen wins. It is a gammon (double) if the loser has borne off none, and a backgammon (triple) if they also still have a checker on the bar or in your home board.