Backgammon is a game of luck and skill. It is played by two people with 15 checkers each on a board consisting of 24 spaces or points. The checkers are moved according to rolls of the dice. Each player tries to bring his own checkers home and bear them off before his opponent does, hitting and blocking the enemy checkers along the way.

Although the game is essentially a race, backgammon offers a significant scope for strategy. With each roll of the dice, a player must choose between numerous options for moving the checkers and plan for possible counter-moves by his opponent. Opportunities for raising the stakes of the game introduce more strategic intricacies. Players have developed a vocabulary for common tactics and occurrences.

Like chess, backgammon has been studied considerably by computer scientists. Research has resulted in backgammon software that is capable of beating world-class human players.