Our Initial Position on the Board

When the backgammon board is setup we need to check our position and the positions of our checker pieces. We also need to pay attention to where we place them during the first phase of the game. Here is a summary how to position checkers on the backgammon board.

To correctly position the checkers we first check if we are also positioned correctly at the table where the board is setup. To do this we first number the points on the board. Points are the 24 steep triangles placed in rows on the board. The 24 triangles are divided into 4 groups, 6 triangles or points in each group or quadrants. Two groups are on the top side of the board and two at the bottom side.

There are two colors assigned for the checker pieces, one each team of 15 pieces. Some sets have black and white, some have red and green. If we play the black pieces we follow how the white pieces are arranged—meaning, we place the same number of pieces on the points opposite where the white pieces are. Then we start numbering the points.

The enemy home board is where we start moving our pieces going to our home board opposite the enemy board. We move counter clockwise. From 24-point we move to our 1-point. To make it easy for us, we sit at the side where the enemy home board is so that our goal is to move our checkers on the backgammon board to the top side of the board according to how we are oriented or where we are seated.

It's like in chess and American checkers. Our starting point is the side of the board nearest us and then we aim to go forward to the top side of the board, according to where we are seated. We don't start from the top side of the board to the bottom board. That might confuse us somewhat. So we should sit at the side where we start our move—the side where the enemy home board is. We move in a semi-circular manner, counter clockwise.

The opponent, on the other hand, moves enemy checkers toward us—from our top to the bottom. The opponent also moves in a semi-circular manner, but enemy checkers move clockwise.

Thus, we need to see where we place our checkers on the backgammon board. They should be opposite where enemy checkers are placed and moving against the flow of their counterparts.