Backgammon

What is Backgammon?

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games still played: two players, fifteen checkers each, two dice and a race around twenty-four points. Luck decides how far you move; skill decides what you do with it. Every turn asks the same question in a new shape: play safe, or take a risk that could win the game.

This version is made for a phone held upright. The board is turned a quarter so the points run down two columns and every checker is a comfortable tap. You can play a rival at three levels, from a patient teacher to an opponent that thinks a roll ahead, or hand the phone to a friend and play each other on the same screen.

How to play

Roll the dice, then move your checkers by the two numbers: tap a glowing checker and the points it can reach light up, tap one and it slides there. When one checker can use both dice, its combined landing lights up too. Undo takes back any step until you press Done.

• Direction. You start at the bottom left, climb the left column and come down the right one to your home board at the bottom right. The rival walks the mirror path.
• Blocked points. You cannot land on a point held by two or more rival checkers.
• Hits. Land on a single rival checker and it goes to the bar. A checker on the bar must come back in, through the rival's home board, before anything else moves.
• Doubles. Roll the same number twice and you play it four times.
• Use every die you can. If both numbers can be played, you must play both; if only one can, the larger one is played when possible.
• Bearing off. Once all fifteen of your checkers are home, you start taking them off. The first to bear off all fifteen wins.

Strategy tips

1. Make points, not blots. Two checkers on a point are safe and block the rival; a lone checker is a target.
2. Build your home board early. Each point you own there makes a hit checker harder to bring back in.
3. Race when you are ahead. Compare the pip counts under each name: when you lead the race, break contact and run.
4. Hit when it costs little. A hit sends the rival back to the start, but leaving a blot in your own home board can cost you the game.
5. Watch your back checkers. The two checkers that start deep in the rival's board need a plan before the rival closes the door.

FAQ

Is Backgammon free to play?

Yes. Like every game on Play, it runs free in your browser, with no download and no account needed.

How does the rival choose its moves?

It reads the position the way a club player does: the race, the risk of every loose checker, the points that make a board. The hard rival also looks one roll ahead before it moves.

What is a gammon?

If you bear off all fifteen checkers before the rival has borne off even one, you win a gammon, worth two points. If the rival still has a checker on the bar or in your home board, it is a backgammon, worth three.

Can two people play on one phone?

Yes. Choose Two players and pass the phone each turn; the board shows whose turn it is and lights up only that player's checkers.

Why can't I move a checker?

The rules may require something else first: a checker on the bar must come back in, and you must play both dice when both can be played. Only the checkers you may move light up.