Each player has five men on his 6 point, three men on his 8 point, five men on his 13-point and two men on his 24 point. A player`s 6-point and 8-point will always be on his near side of the board and his 13 and 24 points will always be on the far side. The point numbers are reversed from the point of view of the opposing player. Your 13-point is your opponent`s 12-point, your 3-point his 22-point, etc.

The board will always appear as a mirror image for the opposing player.. One players` 1-point will be to his left, while the other`s will be to his right. One player moves anti-clockwise and the other clockwise as indicated in the diagram The board can be set up either way.

The points are not actually numbered on backgammon boards. 3 The doubling cube starts in the centre as indicated, either set to the value of 64 (or 1).