Backgammon opening moves

Fifteen first rolls, and a good answer for each one. Learn these and the first turn stops being a guess.

If the rules are new, read how to play first. This page is about the very first move of the game. When you want the bigger ideas behind these plays, the strategy for beginners page explains them.

Why there are only fifteen

In ordinary backgammon, each player rolls one die to start. The higher number goes first and plays both dice. The two dice can never match, so the opening roll is never a double. That leaves fifteen different rolls. A 3-1 and a 1-3 are the same roll.

How to read a move

Points are counted from your side. Your 1 point is next to your tray and your 24 is the far corner, where your two back checkers start. A move like 13/7 means one checker goes from your 13 point to your 7 point. Two moves together, like 8/5 6/5, means one checker from the 8 and one from the 6, both landing on the 5.

At the start you have two checkers on the 24, five on the 13, three on the 8, and five on the 6. Leave the point numbers on, and every move below is easy to find.

The rolls that make a point

Four rolls make a new point straight away. Play them this way every time.

• 3-1: 8/5 6/5. This makes your 5 point, the best point on the board. It is the best opening roll there is.
• 4-2: 8/4 6/4. This makes your 4 point, the next best.
• 6-1: 13/7 8/7. This makes your bar point and starts a wall of three points in a row.
• 5-3: 8/3 6/3. This makes your 3 point. It is deeper than you would like, but a made point is worth it.

Every opening roll, in one table

The first column is the standard modern play. Where a second play is close enough that strong players still choose it, it is listed too.

The lover's leap

A 6-5 takes one back checker all the way from your 24 point to your 13 point. It lands safely on your own checkers, and it is already eleven pips ahead in the race. There is nothing to think about. Leap.

The other rolls: split, or bring builders down

The rest of the rolls cannot make a point. They do one of two things, and often both.

Splitting moves one back checker off the 24, as in 24/18 or 24/23. Your back checkers get more ways to make an anchor, and more ways to escape. The cost is that each one is now a blot. Early in the game, that is a fair price.

Bringing builders down moves checkers from the 13 point toward your home, as in 13/11 or 13/9. A builder is a spare checker that can help make a new point next turn. A checker on your 9 or 11 gives you many more rolls that make your 5 point or your bar point.

A slot is the bolder idea. With 6/5 you put a single checker on your 5 point and hope to cover it next turn. Players slotted much more in the past. Today the quieter split is usually preferred, but the slot is not a blunder, and you will still see it.

Three habits for the first turn

• If a roll makes the 5, 4, 3, or bar point, make it.
• With a 6-5, run one back checker to the midpoint.
• Otherwise, split a back checker, bring a builder down from the 13, or do one of each.

The second move of the game can be a double, and then the choices change. That is where the ideas on the strategy page take over. One of the short classic plays in Historical Matches is an opening 6-1, if you want to watch one at the table.

Try them out now. Pull up a chair and play free at playd9.com. There are no ads and no account to make, and Jade is a gentle first opponent.