How to play Backgammon

Backgammon is a race for two players with a fight in the middle. Each side has 15 checkers and two dice. You move your checkers all the way around the board into your home board, then take them off. The first player to bear off all 15 wins. Luck decides a single roll, skill decides most games.

The board

The board has 24 points, the long triangles, in four quarters of six. The points are numbered from your side: 24 is the farthest from home and 1 is the last one. Points 1 to 6 are your home board. The wooden strip down the middle is the bar. You play White, and your checkers travel from 24 down to 1. The computer plays Black and goes the other way, toward its own home board across from yours.

Each side starts with 2 checkers on its 24 point, 5 on its 13, 3 on its 8 and 5 on its 6.

The opening roll

To start, each player rolls one die. The higher number goes first and plays both of those dice as the first move. If the dice match, they are rolled again. After that, players take turns rolling two dice.

Moving

• Each die moves one checker forward exactly that many points. With a 5 and a 3 you can move one checker 5 and another 3, or the same checker 8, as long as it can stop on the point in between.
• A checker may land on an empty point, a point with your own checkers, or a point with just one of your opponent's checkers. It may never land on a point with two or more of theirs: that point is blocked.
• Rolling doubles, like 4 and 4, means you play that number four times.
• You must use both dice whenever you can. If only one of them can be played, you must play it, and if either one could be played but not both, you must play the bigger one. If no move is possible, the turn passes.

On this board, tap one of your checkers and then the glowing point where it should go. Tapping the same checker twice moves it by the bigger die. After your move, tap Done. Until then you can still take a checker back with Undo.

Hitting and the bar

A single checker alone on a point is a blot. If your opponent lands on it, it is hit and placed on the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back in before moving anything else: it enters into the opponent's home board, on the point matching one of the dice (a 3 enters on the opponent's 3 point, which is your 22). If both entry points are blocked, the turn is lost.

Bearing off

When all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you start bearing off. A die takes off a checker from the point with the same number: a 6 from the 6 point, a 2 from the 2 point. You may also use a die to move a checker inside your home board instead. If the die is higher than your farthest checker, you take off that farthest checker. If one of your checkers is hit while you bear off, it must come back around before you continue.

Winning and scoring

• A normal win is worth 1 point.
• A gammon is worth 2: the loser has not borne off a single checker.
• A backgammon is worth 3: the loser has borne off nothing and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board.

The doubling cube and matches

Choose a match to 3, 5 or 7 points in Settings to play with the doubling cube. Before rolling, a player who feels ahead may offer to double the stakes. The other player either takes, and the game is now worth twice as much (and only they may double next), ordrops, and loses the game right away at the current value. The cube starts in the middle showing 64, which simply means 1. When a player gets within one point of winning the match, the next game is played without doubling (the Crawford rule). A double that could not change the match is not offered.

Tips

1. Make points, especially in your home board. Every point you own is a place your opponent cannot land, and a hit checker has a hard time coming back in.
2. Mind your blots. A lone checker within six points in front of your opponent's checkers gets hit about a third of the time or more. Farther away, it is safer.
3. The best openings: 3-1 makes your 5 point (8 to 5, 6 to 5), 4-2 makes your 4 point, 6-1 makes your 7 point (13 to 7, 8 to 7).
4. Count the race. Each name plate shows the pip count, the total distance still to go. Ahead in the race, avoid contact and run. Behind, hold a point in your opponent's home board and wait for a shot.
5. Hit when it helps. A hit sends your opponent back up to 24 points, and often wins the race on the spot.

Today's game

The Daily Game gives everyone the same dice, roll for roll, against the same computer player. What you do with them is up to you. Win, and the more pips the computer still had to go, the better. Lose, and the fewer pips you still had, the better. Your first try of the day is the one that counts.

Questions

Are the dice fair? Yes. Every roll comes from a fair random generator, decided before the game starts and not changed by your moves or the computer's.

How strong is the computer? Easy plays the basic ideas with some mistakes. Normal makes points and avoids blots. Sharp weighs every point, the blocking walls and the race, and knows when to double and when to drop.

Why did my turn pass after I rolled? None of your checkers could move with those dice, most often because a checker on the bar could not get in.

Can I move without tapping Done? Yes. Turn off "Confirm each turn" in Settings and your turn ends as soon as your dice are used.

Can two people play on one phone? Yes. Choose "Two on one device" and pass the phone after each turn. Playing with friends over a link, each on their own phone, is coming soon.

Do I need an account? No. Your game is saved in this browser, so you can close the page and come back.