Long Backgammon Rules: Mars for Beginners
Backgammon is a game with chips, or checkers, on a special board, in which 2 people take part. There are several types of this entertainment. But in order to play a specific game, the player needs to learn the basic rules of playing long backgammon.
At the beginning of the game, the opponents place 15 checkers, black or white, on the playing field. The field has 24 cells, which are divided into 4 groups. Players place their chips along the left side of the board: one player places them in 1st position and the other in 13th. These vertical lines are called the “head”.
The rules of the game of long backgammon oblige the participants to make only full moves
During the game, the participants must move the checkers to the “house”, that is, move counterclockwise. White moves from the 13-18th cell to the 7th-12th, and Black moves from the 1st-6th to the 19-24th.
Participants take turns throwing 2 dice on the table and taking steps in accordance with the dropped numbers. For example, if the number “3” and “4” fell out, then you can move 7 steps with one piece, or move 2 pieces – one by 3 steps, and the second by 4. Only one piece can be removed from the “head” in one move. If the same number of points fell on the dice, then the moves are doubled.
You can put several of your chips on one position. You cannot go to the cell where the opponent is standing, the participant misses a move.
If all the tokens are in the house, they can be thrown over the board. This is done from the fields dropped by points on the die. For example, if the number “5” fell out, then checkers are thrown from the 5th position or from the lower squares, if the 5th cell is empty. In the house, you can also take steps based on the numbers on the cube.
Mars and other types of victory
The game is won by the one who first throws the chips out of the playing field. Victory is called like this:
- Oin. This is a situation in which the loser threw at least 1 checker out of the house. The game finished 1: 0.
- Mars. The winner is the player who brought all the checkers off the board, and the loser did not manage to bring them into the house. The winner gets 2 points.
- Home Mars means that the loser’s chips are brought into the house, and the opponent has thrown theirs overboard. For this, the winner receives 3 points.
- Coke. In this case, some of the chips of the losing participant remain in their original position. The winner will earn 4 points.
- Draw. Such an outcome can be when the player who plays white threw them out of the house, while the second still has the right to move, since he came into the game later. If the last throw allows him to remove all the checkers, then the game ends in a draw. Participants earn the same number of points.
Thus, the outcome of the game and the number of points depend on the location of the checkers on the field and beyond.
Learn the basic rules and learn about the features of other types of this game.