Backgammon
The oldest race game still played: fifteen checkers each, two dice, and a board of 24 points. Run your checkers home and bear them off before the other player, hitting and blocking on the way. Legal moves are shown when you tap a checker, and every roll comes from a seed fixed before the first move, with a tally you can check.
Two players. A game takes 10 to 20 minutes. More board games: Checkers, Reversi, Four in a Row, Dominoes, Sea Battle and Ludo are in Yuzool's Board Games too.
How to play Backgammon
- The start: each player rolls one die and the higher roll goes first, playing those two numbers. A tie is rolled again.
- Moving: each die is a separate move. A checker may land on an empty point, a point you hold, or a point with one checker of the other side. A point with two or more of the other side is closed to you.
- Doubles: a double is played four times.
- Hitting: landing on a single checker sends it to the bar. A checker on the bar must come back in, in the other player's home board, before you move anything else.
- Both numbers: you must play both dice if any order allows it. If you can play one or the other but not both, you must play the higher.
- Bearing off: once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you take them off by the roll. A number higher than your furthest checker takes that checker off.
Roll, then tap a checker and tap where it should go; the points it can reach light up. Tap a checker twice to move it by the larger number. Press Done when your move is finished; until then Undo takes checkers back. The full rules, with worked examples, are in How to play Backgammon.
Winning
The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins. The standard game here is a single game. A gammon (the loser has borne off nothing) and a backgammon (the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board) are named when they happen, but each counts as one win.
| With the Pro doubling cube option | Points |
|---|---|
| A plain win | 1 × the cube |
| A gammon | 2 × the cube |
| A backgammon | 3 × the cube |
Tips
- Make points. Two checkers together are safe and block the other player. Your 5-point and bar point are the best to own.
- Count the risk of a blot. A single checker within six points of an enemy checker is hit far more often than one further away.
- Keep an anchor in the other player's home board so that you always have somewhere to come in.
- Ahead in the race? Run. Behind? Stay back, hold your points and wait for a shot.
Questions
Is Backgammon free to play here?
Yes. Backgammon against the Easy and Medium house players, pass and play for two, the coach, taking back checkers until you press Done, autosave and the dice tally are free, with no ads and no sign-up. Board Games Pro, a one-time $1.99 upgrade for all seven games, adds the Hard players, rule options, full statistics and history, and extra board and piece looks.
Are the dice fair?
Every roll comes from the game's seed, which is fixed before the first move, and no roll depends on anything either player does. The Scores sheet shows the seed and a tally of every number each side has thrown, and your statistics keep the tally over all your games under "Were the dice fair?". The house players never see the dice to come.
Which rules are these?
The standard game: one die each to start, doubles played four times, both numbers played when possible and the higher when only one can be, bearing off with all fifteen at home. It is a single game without the doubling cube. Pro adds the cube with a match to 3 or 5 points, in which a gammon counts 2 and a backgammon 3, with no Crawford rule, no automatic doubles and no beavers.
Can I take a move back?
You can take back the checkers you have moved until you press Done. Once the dice are thrown for the next turn there is no going back. The game is saved in this browser on this device, even part way through.