Scoring A game is won by the player who bears-off all his checkers first. The winner wins two times the value of the cube when a gammon occurs and three times the value when a backgammon occurs. It may seem that the object of the game is to race your checkers around the board as quickly as possible. If that were the case, the outcome of the game would be determined completely by Lady Luck. Victory would go to the player fortunate enough to cast the higher numbers and interest in the game would soon evaporate.
Backgammon is also a strategy game.
The sure way to succeed is to construct an obstacle that your opponent cannot hurdle. Thus, if he should leave a blot and you hit it, he will find it difficult to bring his checkers around the board into his home board. Remember, a checker that has been hit goes to the bar and must re-enter in the opponent's home board. The checher must complete the full course of the board before it is in a position to be removed. In addition, the player has lost ground - the number of points he has advanced the checker to the position where it was hit have all gone to waste.