How to get better at backgammon

Last updated 28 October 2026

Most players get better fastest by finding and fixing their own biggest mistakes, not by memorising. These eight habits help most, roughly in the order they pay off.

1. Review your games, big mistakes first

After a game, look at the moments where your winning chances dropped the most. A few big mistakes often cost more than all the small ones together. Fix one kind at a time: if you keep leaving checkers to be hit, work on that before anything else. Backgammon Room’s review finds them for you and explains each in a sentence or two; on a computer, GNU Backgammon analyses games for free.

2. Learn the opening rolls once

A game can’t start with a double, so there are only 15 opening rolls. Learn a good play for each and every game starts well. Three to begin with:

• 3-1: one checker from your 8-point and one from your 6-point to your 5-point, making it.
• 4-2: one from your 8 and one from your 6 to your 4-point.
• 6-1: one from your 13 and one from your 8 to your 7-point, the point next to the bar.

The best opening moves has all 15, each on a board.

3. Check three things before each move

In order: can you hit, can you make a point, and can you stay safe? Most good moves are one of those three. Early in the game, hitting a lone checker is usually right, even in your own home.

4. Know the risk in numbers

• A lone checker 1 to 6 points in front of an opponent’s checker is hit by 11 to 17 rolls out of 36. From 7 or more away, by 6 at most.
• Two lone checkers? Leave them where the same number would hit both, so you give fewer shots.
• Coming in from the bar gets harder with each point closed in the home board: 35 rolls out of 36 come in against one closed point, then 32, 27, 20, and only 11 against five.
• Your opponent’s home weak? Be bold. Strong? Be careful.

Backgammon dice odds has the full tables: hitting at every distance, coming in from the bar, bearing off.

5. Learn when to take a double

• Take when you’d still win at least 1 game in 4. Passing gives away a point for sure; taking risks two, so you can afford to be the underdog.
• Double while your opponent can still take, before a good roll makes them pass. Not sure they should take? Then it’s a double.
• Winning lots of gammons? Don’t double: play on for 2 points.

6. Count the race

Once the checkers have passed each other, the lower pip count is ahead, and that decides whether to run or wait, and when to double. How to count pips shows a quick way.

7. A little every day

Short practice spread out over days sticks better than a long session now and then. A daily puzzle takes a minute. Coming back to an idea after a few days, then a week, then a few weeks, is how it stays: Backgammon Room’s lessons come back with new positions at 2, 7 and 21 days.

8. Measure, then stretch

Practise against a bot a little stronger than you, and use take-backs to try ideas. Then play real games, without take-backs, and watch your error rate over your last 10 games rather than any single one. What’s a good error rate explains the numbers.

In Backgammon Room

Eleven short courses on the real board, one idea per lesson in about three minutes: First moves, Hit or play safe, Build your home, Take or pass, Who’s ahead?, Your back checkers, Bringing them home, Bearing off safely, Choose your plan, Gammons and Matches to 5. The first three are free, as are the daily puzzle, Puzzle Rush and games against the bots; a free account adds one coached review a day and all 15 bots.

Questions

Is backgammon mostly luck?

In one game, luck can beat anyone. Over many games the better player wins more often, which is why matches and ratings exist. Your error rate measures the part you control.

Should I practise against bots or people?

Both. Bots let you choose your level, take moves back and play any time; people bring a clock and something at stake. Reviewing the games is what teaches, whoever you played.