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Ban-sugoroku Strategy and Tips

Here is how to think about winning at Ban-sugoroku, split into short lessons. Each one reads on its own, and each one comes with a real position: press Try it on the board and you play the move yourself.

Make a point with both dice

Lesson 1

In ban-sugoroku, two or more of your stones on one point form a block. Your opponent cannot stop on it and cannot cut those stones. A single stone, on the other hand, is exposed: if your opponent stops on it, it is cut and must come back in from their home.

You rolled 3 and 1. Play the 3 from Out 5 to In 5 and the 1 from In 6 to In 5, and two of your stones stand together on In 5. After these two moves you have no lone stone anywhere.

Spend the same roll on two different stones and you leave two lone stones for your opponent to aim at. Putting both dice on one point to make a block is the first idea worth learning, and every block inside your home makes it harder for a cut stone of theirs to come back in.

Cut a lone stone

Lesson 2

Stopping on a point with a single enemy stone cuts that stone. The cut stone waits in the band in the middle of the board, and on its owner's next turn it must come back in on your home — right back near its start. Your opponent loses the whole journey it had made.

What is more, while a cut stone is waiting, its owner may not move anything else. If the points it needs are blocked, that turn is simply lost.

Here your opponent has left a lone stone on your Out 4. Play the 4 with a stone from their Out 1 and it lands right there and cuts it. Afterwards your own stone stands alone, so think about covering it with your next die or your next turn.

Bring a cut stone in where it is open

Lesson 3

When one of your stones is cut, bringing it back in comes before anything else on your next turn. It enters on your opponent's home — the six points at the top left — at the point matching a die: a 1 enters on their In 1, a 6 on their In 6.

A point holding two or more enemy stones is closed. Here you rolled 5 and 3. Their In 5 holds two white stones, so the 5 cannot bring it in; the 3 enters on their In 3.

While any cut stones remain, bring them in before moving other stones. Here there is just one cut stone, so once it is back, you may play the 5 with another stone. If neither die could bring it in, the whole turn would be lost — which is why you want your cut stones back before their home fills with blocks, and why you avoid leaving lone stones in the first place.

Close your home for a double win

Lesson 4

Blocking points your opponent cannot pass is called mushi — steaming them. A Meiji-era guide to the game treats it as the key tactic. When all six of your home points are blocks, a cut stone of theirs cannot come back in, whatever they roll.

By default here — the late Edo rules as explained by Jun Kusaba of the Japan Backgammon League — if you win by getting all fifteen home while your opponent has a cut stone and all six home points hold two or more of your stones, the win counts double (mushi-gachi). A home stacked 2-2-2-3-3-3 or 2-3-2-3-2-3 counts triple.

Here fourteen stones are home and every home point is a block, while your opponent has a cut stone waiting. Play the 2 from Out 5 onto In 6: all fifteen are home and the win counts double. With the win-on-the-spot house rule, closing the home would win at once.

Try it on the board

Pick a lesson and the board starts from that position. Start over as often as you like.

Now put it to work

Play with friendsLearn how to play (3 min)

Last updated 2026-09-26 · Run by Qdan, Inc.