Backgammon Board Buying Guide: What to Look For in a Set That Lasts

A backgammon set that lasts is built from solid wood, has 24 felt-lined points so dice and checkers settle quietly rather than skitter, comes with two matched sets of fifteen weighted checkers, two well-cut dice per player and a doubling cube, and is sized somewhere around 15 inches so the play surface is generous without becoming unwieldy. Get those right and the board will outlive the first game by decades.

The rest is a matter of how you like to play and where you keep it. Below we walk through size, materials, points and checkers, and the difference between a folding case and a flat board, in plain language for someone buying their first set or their best one.

What actually makes a good backgammon board

Start with the bones of it. A board that lasts is made from solid wood rather than a printed veneer over board, because the joints and hinges take real wear over years of folding, packing and play. The play surface should be flat and true, the inlay flush to the touch, and the 24 points evenly spaced so the geometry of the game reads clearly at a glance.

Then the small things that you only notice when they are missing: weighted checkers that sit where you place them, dice cut cleanly so they roll fairly, and a doubling cube that turns easily. The history of the game is older than almost anything else you can buy. The British Museum's Royal Game of Ur shows race games on a board going back some five thousand years, and the modern rules are set out plainly on Wikipedia's backgammon entry.

If you are buying your first board, our guide to backgammon rules, setup and strategy will get you playing in ten minutes. The same instinct applies here as in our wider advice on choosing things that last: buy once, buy well, and it stays in the family. Browse the full backgammon collection to see the range.

Size: how big should a backgammon board be?

Board size is the first practical choice, and it is mostly about where the game will be played. For a kitchen table or a sitting room, something around 15 inches is the sweet spot: large enough that the checkers feel substantial in the hand and the dice have room to tumble, small enough to lift and store without fuss. Our 15\" Oak Backgammon Set sits in exactly that range, and the warm grain of the wood is a pleasure to play on.

Smaller travel boards have their place. If the set is going in a rucksack for holidays or a long train journey, a compact magnetic or folding board keeps the checkers in place when the table moves. We compared the options in our guide to the best travel backgammon sets.

Larger club boards, around 18 inches and up, give a generous surface for serious play and look handsome left out on a side table. The 15 Inch Club Backgammon set is built for regular use. As a rule of thumb, buy the largest board your usual playing spot will comfortably hold, then check it stores where you want it to live.

Materials: what solid wood and felt-lined points add

This is where a set earns its place over the years. A board made from solid wood, oak or beech rather than printed board, holds its shape through hundreds of folds and resists the small knocks of ordinary life. We have made traditional games this way since 1795, longer than any company in the world, as we set out in our short history. The same care that produced the Staunton chess set in 1849 goes into the boards.

Felt-lined points are the quiet luxury most people only appreciate once they have played on them. The felt cushions the checker as you set it down, so each move lands softly rather than with a clack, and it stops the dice from skidding off the points. It also protects the wood from years of placement. When you read about timber sourcing, bodies such as the Forest Stewardship Council explain why responsibly grown wood matters for something built to last.

If you are weighing wood against cheaper materials more broadly, the consumer testing body Which? makes the general case that build quality, not price alone, predicts how long a thing survives. For a set you hope to hand on, that is the whole point. The chess, backgammon and draughts collection shows the same materials across games.

Points and checkers: the details that decide the play

Look closely at the 24 points. They should be evenly spaced and the colours clearly distinct, because half of backgammon is reading the board quickly and counting your route home. Crisp, well-defined points make that easy; muddy printing makes a long game tiring on the eye. The setup of the game relies on that clarity, and our own how-to-play guide shows the starting position in full.

Now the checkers. A complete set has 30, fifteen of each colour, and the good ones are weighted so they sit firmly where you place them rather than rolling at a nudge. The edges should be smooth and slightly domed so they are easy to lift between finger and thumb. Cheap, thin checkers feel like counters; proper ones feel like part of a game you take seriously.

Then the dice. Two per player keeps the game moving, and a doubling cube, the innovation that arrived in 1920s New York, adds the gambling tension that makes match play addictive. A small dice cup is worth having so rolls cannot be steered. If you enjoy the pleasures of well-made traditional games, you will recognise the same instinct in our guide to dominoes sets and in classics like Shut the Box.

Folding case or flat board: which is right for you?

This is the choice that shapes how the set lives in your home. A folding board closes into a case, holding the checkers and dice inside, so it tucks onto a shelf and travels easily. It is the practical default for most families, and the reason our folding oak set is so popular. The trade-off is the hinge in the middle, which on a cheap board can warp; on a solid wood one it stays true for years.

A flat board, by contrast, is one unbroken playing surface with no central seam. Purists prefer it because checkers never catch on a hinge, and it looks handsome left out on a table ready to play. The cost is storage: the pieces need a separate box or pouch, and you cannot just snap it shut and carry it off.

If you want a set to leave out as part of the room, go flat. If you want one to bring out on a winter evening and pack away again, go folding. Either way, build quality is what decides longevity, the same lesson behind our screen-free guide. For a sense of the wider history, the Victoria and Albert Museum holds many examples of traditional game boxes from the era when home gaming flourished. Browse the full board games range to compare.

A backgammon board is one of those quiet purchases that rewards a little patience. Buy a solid wood set with felt-lined points and weighted checkers, in a size that suits the table you will actually play on, and it becomes the board the family reaches for on winter evenings for years to come. That is the whole pleasure of it: a game older than almost anything in the house, played on something made to be handed on.