- Score sheets
- Board games
- Backgammon
How to score Backgammon
The first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins the game: 1 point, 2 for a gammon or 3 for a backgammon, times the doubling cube. In a match, add each game’s points until someone reaches the match length. Keep the match on the free score sheet below, or in the Scorepad.
- 2 players
- 15 checkers each, two dice
- First to the match length
- Only the game’s winner scores
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real Scorepad, live: one hand per game, the winner’s points and 0 for the loser.
Backgammon
The two-player race to bring 15 checkers home and bear them off first, where a win is worth 1, 2 or 3 points times the doubling cube and matches run to a set number of points.
Backgammon on BoardGameGeek.
How to play Backgammon, in brief
Backgammon is a two-player race to bring 15 checkers around the board and home. Bear off (remove) all 15 first to win the game; games add up to a match.
- Roll for firstSet up as the rules show. Each player rolls one die; the higher moves first, using both numbers.
- Move by each dieMove a checker the number on each die, one checker or two; doubles count four times. You can’t land on a point (a triangle) held by 2 or more opposing checkers.
- Hit a lone checkerA lone checker you land on goes to the bar in the middle, and its owner must bring it back in before moving anything else.
- Bear offWith all 15 checkers in your home board (the last 6 points), use each die to remove a checker from the matching point.
How far behind the loser is, times the cube.
Only the winner of a game scores. How much depends on how many checkers the loser got off before the end, and on the doubling cube. A game nobody doubled is worth its face value.
What a game is worth
| The game | Points |
|---|---|
| Single gameThe loser has borne off at least one checker | 1 |
| GammonThe loser has borne off none | 2 |
| BackgammonNone off, and a checker still on the bar or in the winner’s home board | 3 |
| DoubledThe cube on 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, with no limit | × the cube |
| A dropped doubleThe player who refuses loses at the stakes before the double | Old stakes |
- Bear off firstThe first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins the game.
- Check the loser’s checkersAt least one borne off is a single game, 1 point. None off is a gammon, 2. None off with a checker on the bar or in your home board is a backgammon, 3.
- Multiply by the cubeEither player may offer the first double at the start of their turn, before rolling. Take it and you own the cube, so only you can redouble; drop it and you lose at the stakes before the double.
- Add it to the matchEach game’s points go on the winner’s total. The first to reach the match length wins; there is no bonus for going past it.
- Mind the Crawford gameIn the one game after a player first gets one point short of the match, nobody doubles.
Five games, and Mara wins by one.
You and Mara play to 5. You win game 1, then game 2 after Mara doubles and you take. In game 3 Mara doubles, you take, and she wins a gammon: 4 points. That puts her one short, so game 4 is the Crawford game, played without the cube. This is the match on the Scorepad above, one hand per game.
| Player | Games won, with the cube worked out | Points |
|---|---|---|
| You | Games 1, 2 and 4A single, a single on the 2 cube, a single: 1 + 2 + 1 | 4 |
| Mara | Games 3 and 5A gammon on the 2 cube, then a single: 4 + 1 | 5 |
One game per hand, to the match score.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. For backgammon, keep Highest wins (every new game starts there), set Play to a score to your match length, and switch to By hand. Each game of the match goes in as its own hand.
- The match length on the padPlay to 5, 7 or any length. A total that reaches it turns gold, and since only a game’s winner scores, the first one there has the match.
- Work out the cube firstThe keypad adds but cannot multiply, so a gammon on a 4 cube goes in as 8, or as 4 + 4.
- The Crawford game is yoursThe app does not know which game is the Crawford game. When someone gets one point short, put the cube aside for the next game.
- And the night is keptSave the match with who played and a photo of the board. Each game gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and who wins.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Backgammon, with its scores
Common Backgammon scoring mistakes
- Forgetting the cubeA gammon with the cube on 4 is worth 8, not 2.
- Paying the new stakes after a dropped doubleA player who refuses a double loses the value before it: 1 point for a first double.
- Doubling in the Crawford gameIn the one game after a player first reaches one point short of the match, the cube is out of play.
- Bringing money-game extras into a matchThe Jacoby rule, beavers and automatic doubles are not used in match play.
Backgammon scoring, answered
- How do you score backgammon?
- The winner of a game scores 1 point for a single game, 2 for a gammon and 3 for a backgammon, multiplied by the doubling cube. In a match, the first player to reach the agreed total wins.
- What is a gammon worth in backgammon?
- 2 points, times the doubling cube, so a gammon with the cube on 4 is worth 8. It is a gammon when the loser has not borne off a single checker.
- How many points is a backgammon match?
- Whatever the players agree, usually an odd number such as 5, 7 or 9. The first player to reach it wins, and points past it earn nothing extra.
Backgammon score sheet
Print one for the table: two players and fifteen games, the points for each game and a running total, with the scoring at the bottom.
Score another game
Money play adds rules a match does not use: the Jacoby rule, beavers and automatic doubles. Sources word the Crawford rule two ways: the cube out of play for both players, or the leader’s opponent not allowed to double. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against the United States Backgammon Federation, Backgammon Galore and Wikipedia.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
