Backgammon Rules on Setting Up Your Board
If ever there is anything in backgammon you'll see a lot it would be the starting position of the checkers on the board. The fun thing about backgammon is that if you're playing this at home or with a friend there's two of you to figure out the set up if both of you are new to the game. If this is your first time to set up your backgammon board to start a game then you should find a picture of the starting position.
Having a picture of the starting position helps a lot with the set up phase of your backgammon game. Now, let's shift our gears forward and set up your backgammon board. You'll need your board of course and your checkers, all 30 of them. You should pick which color of checkers you're going to play and which ones are for your opponent. After deciding on that you can get your board and position it so that the bar where the board folds lays vertically between you and your opponent.
The left side of your backgammon board is called the outer board while the board to the right side of the bar is your home board. It works backwards from your opponent's point of view. You place your checkers on the pips (i.e. the long triangles you see on the board). You will have 12 pips on your side and 12 on your opponent's. These pips will be numbered from right to left where the one to the utmost right is your number one and the farthest to the left will be your number 12.
The numbering of pips for your opponent's side goes in the opposite direction. Your number 13 pip is the farthest one to the left and the number 24 pip is one on the far right. Now that we have your pip numbering set up here's where you place checkers on them.
Let's say you have black and white chips (15 for each color in your backgammon set). Let's assume that you chose to play the black colored checkers. Place a couple of black backgammon checkers on your number one pip and five on your number 12 pip. Then place three black backgammon checkers on your number 17 pip and five on your number 19 pip.
Moving off to your opponent's backgammon checkers, place five white backgammon checkers on your number six pip and three white checkers on your number eight pip. Next, place five white backgammon checkers on your number 13 pip and two checkers on your number 24 pip. Stepping back, you'll see that the black and white backgammon checker positions mirror both sides of the board.
That's how you set up your backgammon board for the first time. You'll surely be familiar with this starting position because it's the one you'll see the most.