Race your checkers round the board and bear them off before your opponent does, with the dice deciding how far you get and you deciding where it goes.
Full rules including hitting, the bar, doubles and the doubling cube.
Roll the dice and move your checkers that many points towards your home board. Each die is a separate move, and doubles give you four moves instead of two.
You can land on any point that is empty, yours, or holds a single enemy checker. Landing on a lone enemy checker sends it to the bar, and it has to re enter before that player does anything else.
A point with two or more of your checkers is blocked, and a wall of them is how you keep your opponent stuck.
Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you can start bearing them off. First player to take all fifteen off wins.
It raises the stakes. Offer it when you are ahead and your opponent either accepts, doubling the value of the game, or gives up and loses at the current stake.
Your checker goes to the bar and has to re enter in your opponent's home board before you can make any other move. Getting hit late in a race usually costs you the game.
Winning while your opponent has borne off nothing, which counts double. A backgammon, where they also still have a checker in your home board or on the bar, counts triple.
No. You have to play as much of your roll as is legally possible, which sometimes forces a move you would rather not make.
Backgammon is about five thousand years old and is still the best mix of luck and skill in board games. The dice decide what you are given, and the game is entirely about what you do with it.
The core tension is between racing and blocking. Running your checkers home is safe but slow, and building a wall is strong until the dice make you break it.
The doubling cube is what turns it into a game of judgement. Knowing when a position is good enough to double, and when it is good enough to accept one, matters more than any single move.