Learn backgammon

The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, twelve on each side. The bar divides them down the middle. Each player has 15 checkers.

The two players move in opposite directions, each towards their own home board — the last six points before the finish. The starting position never changes: two checkers on point 24, five on 13, three on 8 and five on 6, mirrored for the opponent.

If you are sitting at a board for the first time, remember just one thing: all your checkers travel in the same direction, towards the low-numbered points.

Bring all fifteen of your checkers into your home board and bear them off from there. The first player to get all their checkers off the board wins.

You roll two dice, and each number is a separate move. With a 5 and a 3 you may move one checker five points and another three — or the same checker five and then three.

A double, the same number on both dice, counts twice: 4-4 gives you four moves of four points each.

A point with two or more of your opponent's checkers on it is blocked; you may not land there. If you cannot play either number, you lose your turn. If you can play only one of them, you must play it — and if either could be played on its own but not both together, you must play the higher one.

A single opposing checker on a point is called a blot. Land on it and you hit it: the checker goes onto the bar and has to start again from the beginning.

As long as you have a checker on the bar, you may not move anything else. It re-enters in your opponent's home board, on the point matching the number you rolled. If that point is blocked, the move is lost.

That is why a lone checker in open territory is always a risk — and sometimes still the best move.

Two of your checkers on a point close it to your opponent. Take several such points next to each other and you build a blockade.

Six blocked points in a row are called a prime. No opposing checker can get past, because a single die can jump at most six points. It is the strongest position in the game.

Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you may start bearing off. The number rolled names the point a checker leaves from: a 4 bears off a checker from point 4.

If there is no checker on that point, you move within your home board instead — or bear off from the highest occupied point if it is lower than the number rolled.

If one of your checkers is hit while you are bearing off, it has to go all the way round the board again first. That often turns the game around.

A game won counts one point.

If the loser has not borne off a single checker, it is a gammon and counts double.

If they also still have a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, it is a backgammon and counts triple.

This is the rule that makes backgammon what it is — and the one beginners trip over most.

The doubling cube shows the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. If you believe you are ahead, you may double before your roll. Your opponent then has a choice:

Take. The game continues for twice the stake, and they get the cube — only they may double next.

Pass. The game ends at once, and they lose the current stake.

It sounds harmless, but it decides most matches. Never doubling gives away points. So does doubling too early. The art is knowing when — and you only learn that by playing.

And the easiest way to learn is simply to come along. At the monthly tournament, beginners sit next to players who have been around for twenty years, and nobody minds answering a question between two games.