How do you play backgammon?
Backgammon is a two player board game where you roll two dice, move checkers by the numbers shown, gather all fifteen in your home board (the last six points) and then bear them off the board before your opponent does.
The board has 24 narrow triangles called points. Ivory travels from point 24 down to point 1 while Ebony goes the other way from 1 to 24. With a roll of 3 and 5 you may move one checker 3 and another 5, or move a single checker 3 and then 5 more. You may never land on a point held by two or more enemy checkers, but any other point is open.
Why does a lone checker get hit?
A single checker on a point is called a blot, and if the opponent lands exactly on it, the blot is sent to the bar in the middle of the board and must re enter from the start. That is a hit.
While you have a checker on the bar you may not move anything else. It must enter the opponent's home board first, and if every entry point shown by your dice is blocked by two or more enemy checkers, you lose the whole turn. Holding several home points with two checkers each is therefore a strong way to trap an enemy, and keeping your own checkers in pairs is the first rule of safe play.
What are the exact dice rules?
You must use both dice if you can, and doubles are played four times. If only one die can be played, you must play the higher one, and if neither can be played the turn passes.
| Situation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Opening | Each side rolls one die, the higher roll starts and uses both dice as the first move |
| Doubles | A 3-3 gives you four moves of 3 |
| Blocked point | A point with two or more enemy checkers cannot be landed on |
| Hit | Landing on a single enemy checker sends it to the bar |
| Bar | Bar checkers must enter first. If every entry is blocked, the turn is lost |
| Bearing off | Only after all 15 checkers are home. A higher roll than needed may bear off the farthest checker only if no checker sits farther back |
| Scoring | A win is 1 point, a gammon (loser bore off nothing) is 2, a backgammon (gammon with a loser's checker still on the bar or in the winner's home) is 3. First to 5 points wins the match |
There is no doubling cube in this version. Gammons and backgammons alone decide how many points a game is worth.
When can I bear off?
As soon as all fifteen of your checkers are inside your home board you may bear off a checker from the point matching each die. Home is points 1 to 6 for Ivory and 19 to 24 for Ebony.
If you roll a 6 and have nothing on the 6 point, you may remove the farthest checker instead, but only when no checker remains on a higher point. If a checker is hit during bearing off, you cannot bear off again until it has come all the way back home, so when enemy checkers are still lurking near your home it pays to come down in pairs.
How do the computer levels differ?
Easy mostly plays at random with a taste for long moves and hits, Normal weighs the danger of leaving blots and the value of home points, and Hard expands every one of the 21 possible enemy rolls and picks the move that loses the least.
The Hard evaluation includes the race pip count, the chance of each blot being hit, primes made from consecutive points and anchors held in the enemy home board. The pip numbers printed above and below the bar show how many pips each side still has to travel, so you can see at a glance who is ahead.
Any tips for winning at backgammon?
- Travel in pairs. A lone checker within six points of an enemy gets hit roughly one time in three.
- Make home points early. Two checkers each on the 5 and 4 points leave the opponent fewer places to enter from the bar.
- Six points in a row is a wall. A prime the enemy cannot jump keeps their checkers locked behind it.
- Break contact when you lead the race. If your pip count is lower, avoid any chance of being hit and simply run home.
- Keep an anchor when you are behind. A held point inside the enemy home board gives you a shot as they come down.
Controls
- Touch or mouse: tap a checker with a yellow ring and every legal destination lights up with its die number. Tap the spot or drag the checker there. A spot reached by both dice in sequence is labelled 3+5.
- Keyboard: arrow keys pick a checker, Enter confirms, arrows again pick the destination and Enter moves. U or Ctrl+Z undoes this turn's moves and Esc cancels the selection.
- Two players: Ivory and Ebony take turns on one screen. On a phone held upright the board turns sideways so both home boards sit at the bottom.
Your record against the computer stays in this browser and is never sent to a server. Dice use the browser's random generator and are not tilted toward either side.