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BackgammonPlay online, free

The two-player race on an inlaid board: throw, move your fifteen checkers home, and bear them off first.

Play against bots

Join a table of 2. Bots take the empty seats within five seconds.

Bots
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With friends

Open a private table and send the invite.

Play with friends

Beginner

A real game, with a coach at your side.

Learn by playing

No sign-up. A game takes about twenty minutes.

How to play

  1. The start. Each player has 15 checkers: 2 on their 24-point, 5 on their 13-point, 3 on their 8-point and 5 on their 6-point. You move from your 24-point down to your 1-point, then off the board. Points 1 to 6 are your home board.
  2. The opening throw. Each player throws one die. The higher number moves first and plays both numbers. A tie is thrown again.
  3. A throw. Throw two dice and move by each number: one checker per number, or one checker by both. A double gives you four moves of that number.
  4. Landing and hitting. A checker can land on an empty point, on your own checkers, or on a point with exactly one of the other player’s checkers (a blot). The blot is hit and goes to the bar. A point with two or more of theirs is closed.
  5. The bar. A checker on the bar must enter first, into the other player’s home board, before anything else moves. If it cannot enter, your turn ends.
  6. Use the whole throw. Use both numbers if any way lets you. If only one can be used, use it; if either one could be used but not both, use the larger. With a double, use as many as you can.
  7. Bearing off. When all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, a number takes a checker off from its point. With no checker there, you must move a checker from a higher point; with none higher, it takes off the checker on the highest point. A checker hit now must come home again first.
  8. Winning and the cube. Bear off all 15 first to win 1 point, times the cube. If the other player has borne off none, it is a gammon (2); if they also still have a checker on the bar or in your home board, a backgammon (3). Before you throw, you may double if the cube is yours or in the middle: the other player takes (the cube doubles and is now theirs) or passes and loses at once.

At the online table

  • Tap a checker to lift it. The places it can go show as brass rings, each with the number it uses; tap a ring to move there. If there is only one place, tap the lifted checker again. You can also drag a checker.
  • Undo takes back your last step. Done ends your turn once your dice are used.
  • On a phone the board is turned, so each point is a row you can tap.
  • On a keyboard: Tab to a checker, Enter lifts it, the arrow keys go through its places, Enter moves. T throws, D doubles, U takes back a step, M turns the sound off.
  • Each turn has a 45-second timer. If it runs out, the table plays for you (it never doubles for you).
  • An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.
  • Point at your tray or at the doubling cube, or hold a finger on it, to read what it is.

Why it is fair

Every throw comes from a secret seed. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can throw every die of the game again and check it. Verify a game.

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