Hardwood Backgammon

Backgammon is a board game played with checkers and a pair of dice. Players have fifteen checkers each. The game is played on a board with twenty four spaces on it, with twelve on each side. The board is further broken down into quadrants, 1-6, 7-12, 14-18, and 19-24. Each space is called a pip. A pip is one space away from the goal (spaces twenty five and zero, which will be explained later). Looking at the board, the red side has five checkers in the #19 space. These checkers are all six pips away from the goal, the same for the black’s checkers in space #6.

This is the way the board looks, and this picture will be the reference for all explanations of the rules of the game. For the game, the Red player is sitting on the 13-24 side, and the Black player is sitting on the 1-12 side:

Players start by each rolling a die, whoever rolls a higher number goes first. Each player in turn rolls their dice. Each die must then be used independently. For example, if a three and a five are rolled, one checker may move three space another move five spaces. Now the same checker may move both times, but there can’t be any variation of the numbers, for instance two checkers moving four squares each. The die roll must be used in its entirety. If a player rolls a double, he gets to move that number four times instead of twice.

The object is for the red player to move all of his checkers into the 19-24 quadrant and the black player to move all of his checkers to the 1-6 quadrant.

Along the way, the opportunity may arise to land your checker on a space where your opponent’s checker already resides. In this case, as long as there is only a single checker, you may land your checker there and send your opponent's checker to the bar. The bar is the wide space between the two halves of the board, between 7&18 and 6 &19. When your checker is sent to the bar, you must move it on your very next roll and movement is started into the home quadrant of your opponent, for example a black checker on the bar must move into the 19-24 quadrant.

Sending checkers to the bar is where a significant portion of the strategy of the game comes from. A checker may only be sent to the bar if it is sitting in a space alone. As long as you have two or more checkers there, there is no danger of losing them as your opponent is unable to land in that space. As well as protecting your own pieces, you may use this same rule to block your opponent’s checkers. For example, in the above illustration if a black piece were to land on the bar, the black player would have to roll one to five in order to move as rolling a six would put him in a space already occupied and therefore he must remain on the bar. Now only having one occupied space is not an especially good deterrent as there are two die and therefore two chances to roll one to five. However, if the red side happened to have spaces 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24 each occupied with two or more checkers, the black person would have to remain on the bar until they are able to roll a three. This is advantageous because if you are able to fill all six spaces you can literally keep your opponent unable to move while you move all of your checkers to your home quadrant.

Once a player has all of their checkers in their home quadrant, they may begin moving pieces off the board. Imagine that there are also zero and twenty five spaces on the board. These are the goals and are where you want all your checkers to be. Once all fifteen checkers are in the quadrant the player may then use then use their dice rolls to move checkers off the board into the goal, still using the same rules as before about not splitting up numbers. Once some checkers are removed the situation will arise where for example a six will be rolled but the farthest checker is only five pips away from the goal. Under this circumstance alone, the player may move the highest pip checkers to the goal even though they are fewer spaces than are rolled.

The winner is the player who is able to move all of their checkers into their goal first. The winner then receives one point. The game can be set to any number of points needed to win but the easiest and fastest way is to set it to one point needed to win.

For boosting purposes, there is also a much easier and simpler way to win. In backgammon, there is a cube called the “doubling cube.” Each player, when it is their turn, has the option to offer a double to their opponent. This is done by pressing when it is your turn. If the cube is accepted, this means the game is now worth two points instead of one. The other player then has the option to offer it back, now worth four points. The cube only goes to sixty four, but theoretically a game could go to an unlimited amount of points. However, if a player offers a double and the opponent declines, the player who offered the cube automatically wins. So for boosting purposes, start up a game, set it to one point to win and when it is your turn, offer the cube to your friend and have them decline. Rinse and repeat.

For this achievement, you do not need to win the games, simply to play them. If boosting with a friend, there is an achievement for winning twenty five in a row. Through boosting for that you will have fifty games already, and are halfway to this achievement.

*Note* This achievement, as well as all others, can be done in Xbox Live, in either Ranked or Player Matches. Usually Ranked Matches will be harder, with more skilled opponents and Player will be filled with casual gamers. Use this to determine which is best for you. Player is the best to use for boosting, because then you also have the ability to invite friends into your room which is not available in Ranked matches.