Backgammon is one of the oldest board games in the world: a race with dice where luck meets real skill. Move your fifteen checkers around the board according to the dice, build blocking points, hit your opponent’s lone checkers to send them back, and bring everything home to bear off first. Win a gammon or backgammon for double or triple points. Play a computer on three levels or a friend on the same device.
How to play Backgammon
Goal: Bring all fifteen of your checkers into your home board and bear them off first.
Keyboard & mouse
- Roll the dice (R), then click a checker and a highlighted point
- Click the tray on the right to bear off
- U undoes the moves of your current roll
- P or Escape to pause
Phone & tablet
- Tap Roll dice, then tap a checker and a green point
- Tap the tray on the right to bear off; Undo resets your roll
Rules
- Roll two dice and move checkers that many points (each die separately); doubles move four times.
- You may land on any point except one holding two or more rival checkers. Landing on a single rival checker (a blot) hits it to the bar.
- Checkers on the bar must re-enter in your opponent’s home board before you move anything else.
- Once all your checkers are home (bottom right), bear them off with the exact number — or a higher number from your highest point.
- Use both dice if you can. First to bear off all checkers wins: a gammon (opponent bore off none) counts double, a backgammon triple.
Tips and strategy
- Two or more checkers make a point that your opponent cannot land on — build these in a row to form a blockade.
- Avoid leaving single checkers within six points of your opponent’s checkers.
- Hitting a blot costs your opponent all the distance that checker had travelled.
- When nobody can hit anybody any more, it is a pure race — just move as efficiently as you can.
