The first moves of a backgammon game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening, and studied in the backgammon opening theory. Backgammon opening theory is not developed in as much detail as opening theory in chess, which has been widely studied. This is because following the first move in backgammon, there are 21 dice roll outcomes on each subsequent move and many alternative plays for each outcome. Therefore, the tree of possible positions in backgammon expands much more rapidly than in chess; by the third roll there are about 25,000 different possibilities.

By the early 1980s a consensus had developed among backgammon experts on the preferred opening move for some rolls, with other rolls not attracting a consensus. Following the emergence of self-trained backgammon-playing neural networks, the suggested best opening moves for some rolls have changed significantly from the pre-bot expert opinions.