Backgammon
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How to play

How to play backgammon

Backgammon is a race with a fight built in: roll two dice, move your 15 checkers home, hit lone opponents on the way, and bear off first. Here are the rules as this game plays them.

Play backgammon

The basics

Four steps from setup to a win

If you have never played, these four steps cover everything you need. The game only ever highlights legal moves, so you can learn by playing.

  1. 1

    Read the board

    The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, numbered 1 to 24 from your side. You play the ivory checkers and start with 15: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point, and five on your 6-point. The computer plays red and mirrors the layout. You move counter-clockwise from the top right around to the bottom right, which is your home board (points 1 to 6).

  2. 2

    Roll and move

    Each turn you roll two dice and play each number as a separate move: with a 5 and a 3 you can move one checker 5 and another 3, or a single checker 8 in total. A point holding two or more opposing checkers is blocked; empty points, your own points, and points with a single opposing checker are open. Doubles let you play the number four times.

  3. 3

    Hit and enter from the bar

    Landing on a lone opposing checker (a blot) hits it and sends it to the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back into the opponent’s home board with a die roll before any other checker can move, and if the entry point is blocked that die is lost. If you cannot play a die you forfeit it; if you can only play one of two dice you must play the larger.

  4. 4

    Bear off to win

    Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board you may bear them off: a die equal to a point’s number removes a checker from that point, and a larger die removes one from your highest occupied point if nothing sits farther back. The first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins — 1 point normally, 2 for a gammon, 3 for a backgammon.

Controls

Playing with mouse, touch, or keyboard

  1. Everywhere

    Tap or click

    Click the Roll dice button (or the dice on the board), then click one of your checkers. Points that can move are ringed in gold; the legal landing points light up with a pulsing dot. Click a lit point to move. Click the bar to enter a hit checker, and click the tray on the right to bear off.

  2. Fast moves

    Double-click / double-tap

    Double-click a checker to play it immediately with the largest die that has a legal move. It is the quickest way to run through a turn when the decision is obvious.

  3. Desktop

    Keyboard

    R or Space rolls the dice, U undoes your last move this turn, H shows a suggested move, N starts a new game after one ends, and M mutes the sound. Board points and buttons are focusable, so Tab and Enter work too.

Rules in detail

The full rule set

  1. The objective

    Move all 15 of your checkers around the board into your home board, then bear them all off before the computer does.

  2. Who starts

    Each side rolls one die. The higher die wins the opening move and plays both numbers as the first turn; ties are re-rolled.

  3. Blocked points and blots

    You cannot land on a point held by two or more opposing checkers. A single opposing checker is a blot: landing there hits it and sends it to the bar. Your own checkers can stack on a point without limit.

  4. Using your dice

    You must play both dice if any legal way exists, and all four numbers on doubles. If only one die can be played, you must play the larger one when both are individually possible. This version enforces those rules automatically and only lights legal moves.

  5. The bar and bearing off

    Checkers on the bar must re-enter before anything else moves. You can only bear off once every checker is in your home board, using exact numbers or, when nothing is farther back, a higher number.

  6. Scoring

    A normal win is 1 point. A gammon — the loser has borne off no checkers — is 2 points. A backgammon — the loser has borne off none and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board — is 3 points. Your points and wins are tracked on this device; there is no doubling cube in this version.

Opponents

Casual or Expert

There are no game modes to learn — just the standard game. You choose how strong the computer plays.

  1. A relaxed opponent

    Casual

    The computer scores its candidate plays but picks with some randomness, so it makes sensible moves most turns and the occasional loose one. It is the right level for learning the rules or unwinding.

  2. The best play it can find

    Expert

    The computer evaluates every legal way to play its dice and always chooses the highest-scoring result, weighing race position, blots exposed to direct shots, made points, and primes. It is a solid club-level heuristic, not a neural-network bot, and it does not use a doubling cube.

Avoid these

Common beginner mistakes

  1. Leaving needless blots

    A blot within six pips of an enemy checker can be hit by a single die, and farther ones by combinations, so the risk is real and often about one in three. If a safe play exists, prefer it unless you are racing to hit first.

  2. Running too early

    Sprinting your back checkers out with no support can leave them stranded and exposed. Advance them together, or hold an anchor (two checkers) in the opponent’s home board until the time is right.

  3. Breaking your home board

    Emptying your high home points to make a small gain hands the computer free entry when you hit it later. Keep the board strong as long as you may still hit.

  4. Ignoring the pip count

    The HUD shows both pip counts. If you are far ahead in the race, contact is your enemy; if you are far behind, simple racing will not win.

Win more

Quick tips

  • Make points, not blots. Two checkers on a point are safe and block your opponent; a lone checker within six pips of an enemy checker is a target.
  • Build your home board early. Points 4, 5, and 6 (and the bar point, 7) are the most valuable places to hold when you hit the computer.
  • Hit when it is cheap. Sending a checker to the bar costs your opponent pips and tempo, especially if you can cover the hit point safely.
  • Try to link points into a prime. Six blocked points in a row cannot be jumped, and even four or five in a row cripples escape.
  • Count pips. The player with the lower total is ahead in the race; if you are behind, play for hits and blocks, and if you are ahead, run for safety.
  • Do not stack too many checkers on one point. Five or more on a single point is inflexible and wastes pips you could use to build structure.
  • Use hint and undo to learn. Ask for a suggestion, see why it prefers that move, and undo any experiment within the same turn.

More in the backgammon strategy guide and the FAQ.

Where you can play

Desktop, phone, and tablet

  1. Desktop browsers

    Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Click to move, double-click for quick moves, or use R, U, H, N, and M for roll, undo, hint, new game, and mute.

  2. Phones and tablets

    The board scales to the screen width and the roll, undo, hint, and new game buttons sit directly beneath it, so a full game is playable in portrait without scrolling.

  3. Progress on this device

    Games played, wins, gammons, points, streaks, and your sound preference live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.