Information of how to play Backgammon; how many checkers each person has, objective of the game and quite a lot of other information to help you understand the game - How to play Backgammon article.

Note: Below article was taken from GammonEmpire, and is quite long; but an interesting read if you know nothing about the game.

Article
Backgammon is a game, which uses checkers, dice and dice cup along with a doubling cube on a board of 24 triangles (points) as instruments in a small battle on the playing field.

Each player has fifteen checkers, which he sets up in the following fashion (insert starting position [position one] here) as his opponent sets up his checkers of a different color in a mirror position.

The objective of the game is to move all of your fifteen pieces into your home quadrant of six points and then take them all off the board before your opponent achieves that same goal.

The movement of the pieces is dictated by the number of spots on each of the two dice rolled. As in chess or checkers only one player can move his pieces at a time and to determine who moves first each player takes one die and rolls it onto the right side of his board on the playing surface.

The player with the higher number plays both numbers and moves either one checker or two separate checkers the corresponding number of spaces equivalent to the spots on each die. In case of a tie, each player rolls one die again until there are different numbers for each player.

The movement is as follows. You can only move your pieces forward in a horseshoe fashion. If your home board is on the right side of your board you move from right to left on the top side of the board and left to right on the bottom side.

Your opponent moves in the opposite direction of you and there is a battle that takes place, as each side's goal is to get all of their checkers into their home section of six points.

After the first move is completed, the player with the larger number on his die picks up his die and puts it back into his cup with the other die. The player who hasn't moved yet then picks up his die and puts it into his cup with his other die and then shakes both dice in the cup and rolls them onto the right side of his board.

He then must move either one checker the same number of spaces on the board that corresponds to the number of spots on both dice or two separate checkers corresponding to each individual die. For example, if you roll a three on one die and an one on the other die you may move a single checker from the eight point to the four point (enter pos 2a here) by either moving three spaces and then one space or by moving one space and then three.

As an additional note, when moving over the bar (the raised surface dividing the two halves of the board) you don't count landing on the bar as movement of a space. You count crossing the bar from one side of the board to the other side of the board as movement of one space.