Backgammon

About this game

Backgammon is the oldest race there is: two players, fifteen checkers each, moving in opposite directions around a board of twenty-four points, and a pair of dice that decide how far but never where. You bear your checkers off the moment they are all home, and the first side to clear all fifteen wins — but the word "race" hides how much of the game is a fight. Land two or more checkers on a point and you own it; the other side cannot land there. Leave a single checker alone — a blot — and an opponent who rolls its distance sends it all the way back to the bar to start again. That one rule is the whole game. Every roll is a choice between running for home and playing safe, between stacking a wall your opponent has to jump and leaving a builder exposed to bring a better point next turn. Six points in a row is a prime, a fence no checker can cross until you break it. An anchor deep in enemy territory is a lifeline that keeps you in a losing race. And when both sides have run clear of each other, the fight evaporates and it becomes a pure count of pips, decided moves ago by who left fewer shots. This is a complete game of the rules as they are actually played: entering from the bar before anything else, doubles played four times over, the obligation to use both dice when you legally can and the higher die when you can only use one, and bearing off with the correct handling of an inexact roll. A gammon — winning before your opponent has borne a single checker off — counts double, and a backgammon, with a checker still trapped in your home board or on the bar, counts triple. The computer opponent comes in three strengths: Easy leaves you room to learn, Normal plays a sound race, and Hard weighs the shots against it before it ever leaves a blot. No download, no account — just the board, the dice and the long walk home.

Controls

Click Roll dice (or press Space) to roll.

• Click one of your highlighted checkers, then click a highlighted point to move it there; a checker with only one legal move plays on the first click.
• Bear checkers off by clicking the tray on the right once all fifteen are home.

How to play

You are the ivory checkers, moving toward your home board in the bottom right; the computer is graphite, moving the other way.

Moving

• Roll the dice and move one checker per die — a double lets you move four times.
• You must use both dice whenever the position allows it.
• Land on a point held by a single enemy checker to hit it, sending it back to the bar, where it must re-enter before that side does anything else.
• Two or more of your checkers make a point the opponent cannot land on.

Bearing off

• Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you begin bearing them off; clear all fifteen before the computer to win.
• Winning before the opponent bears off any checker is a gammon (double); doing it while they still have a checker on the bar or in your home board is a backgammon (triple).

Read the full Backgammon rules and strategy →