Skill School

Backgammon Basics

Dice rolls - click to see board

	Six-Five
	Six-Four
	Six-Three
	Six-Two
	Six-One
	Five-Four
	Five-Three
	Five-Two
	Five-One
	Four-Three
	Four-Two
	Four-One
	Three-Two
	Three-One
	Two-One

Opening Moves

Through computer simulation, the relative merits of various opening die roll moves can be evaluated. There is general agreement on which pieces to move with which dice rolls although it does depend on what the point score is (for example, an opening 2,3 will be different if you are far ahead in a 7 point match than if you are both level on points, i.e. trying to gammon someone, or avoiding it happen to you).

Players do also develop a style of play and have preferences for certain opening moves. If you are second to move in a game, most of the move suggestions will be similar although responses to opening moves show many differences (these are covered in the next section). Don't worry too much at this stage if you are unsure of how "7-point matches" work in backgammon as these opening rolls also apply to the very basic game, a 1-point match.

There are 15 possible opening rolls (see right) and the basic set of opening moves for these is shown below. We have also provided 1 or 2 options for some dice rolls. Generally speaking, the least risky of the two options is shown first and would represent normal play whilst the second or third options are often used when behind in a points match, where a gammon is needed, for example. See backgammon links and reading material for a more detailed discussion on this topic. Note that as the dice are pre-rolled to see who starts a game, there are no opening doubles. The player who receives the highest roll of 2 dice at the outset starts the game and uses the same dice roll for his opening move.