In the game of backgammon, the pieces that are moved across the board play a very important role in the game. The backgammon piece is called a checker (although it is sometimes referred to as a ‘man’ or ‘men’). Once a player has removed all the checkers off the board, he or she will be declared the winner of the game.
The backgammon piece is not placed randomly on the board. There are certain rules that dictate where the checkers should be set up and how they should be moved on the board. If the pieces are not set up properly on the board before play, the game cannot commence. Each player is handed fifteen checkers and these are placed on specific points (long triangles) on the board. Each player places 2 checkers each on point number 24, 5 each on point number 13, 3 each on point number 8 and 5 each on point number 6.
Backgammon pieces are moved across the four quadrants of the board. The fourth quadrant is also known as the player’s home board and it is here that he or she needs to aim to bring all fifteen of the checkers. If a player’s checker is hit by the opponent’s checker, the backgammon piece needs to be placed on the raised ridge cutting vertically across the board, called the bar. A player cannot start removing checkers from the home board until all the checkers are removed off the bar and are back in the home board.
