Knowing What Points are in Backgammon

One of the things we ought to understand in backgammon to enjoy it are the points. Backgammon points are major elements found on a backgammon board. Points are where we apply our strategies and position our pieces for a win.

Points are where we place and move our checker pieces on. They are triangular in shape—steep triangles—and they are lined up side by side on the backgammon board. The same is true whether we play the game on traditional boards or online. Points are to backgammon as squares are to chess and checkers. A point may have one, two, or more checkers at any time. In fact, it may even have no checker on it.

A point with no checker on it is an open point. Any checker piece, ours or the enemy's, may be placed on it any time. When a checker piece is on it it becomes a blot. A blot is often not a good idea. If we have one checker placed on a point we better move another checker to be with it soon. A lone checker piece on a point is easy and favorite target for a hit. A hit is when our love checker piece on a point is joined by an enemy piece. The enemy piece "hit" our piece.

If our piece, on the other hand, joins a lone enemy piece on a backgammon point, we "hit" the enemy checker piece. Getting hit is no fun. A hit piece gets detained on the bar. The bar is a "prison" strip in the middle of the board. When hit a piece loses any gains it had on the board. It gets imprisoned until the next turn when it is entered back on the board to start all over again.

So, if our piece has traveled as far as the 20th point and gets hit, it starts on square one again, as it were. So here the fun begins. When checkers are starting to move out of the enemy board and begin to occupy other points the two players are into the first race—the race of who gets to hit en enemy piece first. The players try to outdo each other in hitting checker pieces.

Thus, points provide most of the fun in backgammon. Other backgammon elements that are equally fun are the dice and the doubling cube. But the first fun we would encounter has to do with backgammon points.