How to teach someone backgammon in ten minutes

Love backgammon? It gets even better when the people around you play too, and the good news is that teaching someone takes about ten minutes. By the end of it they'll have played their first real game.

The rest is about what you leave out. The full rulebook, the cube and your theory about the five-point can all wait: a beginner needs roughly a fifth of what you know, in the right order.

Minute one: say what the goal is

Don't start with the board. Start with the point of it.

"We each have fifteen checkers. Mine go that way, yours go the other way. First to get all of theirs off the board wins."

That's it. Everything else is detail, and detail makes more sense once somebody knows what they're trying to do.

Minutes two and three: set it up together

Let them place their own checkers while you say the numbers: five, three, five, two. Two of them have the whole board to cross; point those out, because they're the ones that cause trouble later.

Setting it up themselves is worth more than watching you do it. Hands remember.

Minutes four and five: move some checkers

Roll and move, talking as you go. Two dice, two moves, one checker or two. Doubles give you four moves instead of two, which always goes down well.

Then the one rule that matters: you can't land on a point where they have two or more checkers. That's all blocking is, and they'll work out the rest by trying.

Minute six: hitting

Land on a lone checker and it goes to the bar, then has to come back in at the far end and start again.

Let them hit you first. It's much more fun to learn by doing it than by having it done to you.

Minutes seven and eight: just play

Stop explaining. Play.

Answer what they ask, say "nice move" when they make one, and resist the urge to correct every choice. A beginner needs to make their own mistakes before advice means anything.

Minutes nine and ten: how it finishes

When their checkers are all home, tell them about bearing off: all fifteen in your last six points, then each number takes one off.

That's the whole game. They can play for years on that much.

What to leave out, at least today

• The doubling cube. It's the best part of the game and the worst thing to explain first.
• Gammons and backgammons. Say "sometimes you win double" and move on.
• Opening theory. Nobody needs the best 3-1 play in their first hour.
• Your opinion about the move they just made.

If they finish the first game wanting a second, you taught it well. That's the only measure that counts.

The short version

• Goal first, board second.
• Let them set up their own checkers: five, three, five, two.
• One blocking rule: two checkers make a point you can't land on.
• Let them hit you before you hit them.
• Stop talking and play by minute seven.
• Save the cube, gammons and theory for another day.