Backgammon online

How do you play backgammon?

In backgammon, each player has 15 checkers and moves them around the 24 points of the board by the roll of two dice. A checker alone on a point can be hit and must re-enter from the bar. Once all 15 reach the six home points, the player starts bearing them off. The first to bear off every checker wins.

How to play

1. The board has 24 points, the triangles. Each side starts with 15 checkers: two on the 24-point, five on the 13-point, three on the 8-point and five on the 6-point, counting from your own home.
2. You play the cyan checkers and your opponent plays pink. Each side moves in one direction, from the farthest point to the six points of its own home. No checker ever moves backward.
3. For the opening roll, each side rolls one die. The higher number goes first and plays those two numbers. On a tie, the dice are rolled again.
4. After that, each player taps Roll the dice on their turn. Each die is a separate move: with a 5 and a 3 you move one checker 5 points and another 3, or the same checker 5 and then 3.
5. Doubles, such as 4 and 4, count twice: you play that number four times.
6. A checker may land on an empty point, on a point with your own checkers, or on a point with a single opposing checker. A point with two or more opposing checkers is blocked.
7. Landed on a point with one opposing checker alone? It is hit and goes to the bar, the strip in the middle of the board.
8. A player with a checker on the bar must enter it before making any other move. It enters in the opponent's home, on the point that matches the number on a die. If the points for both dice are blocked, the turn passes.
9. You must use both dice whenever there is a way to use both. If only one of them can be played, it has to be the higher one. If no move is possible, the turn passes.
10. With all 15 checkers inside your home, bearing off begins. A die removes a checker from the point with the same number: a 4 bears off a checker from the 4-point.
11. If there is no checker on the point of the die, you move a checker from a higher point. If there is no higher checker either, you bear off a checker from the highest point you occupy.
12. If one of your checkers is hit while you bear off, it comes back in from the bar and you only resume bearing off when all your checkers are home again.
13. The first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins.

The variant on this page

• This is standard international backgammon, with 24 points, 15 checkers per side and two dice.
• Wins are single: every game counts as one point. There is no double or triple win.
• There is no doubling cube.
• The game only highlights the moves the rules allow, including the duty to use both dice.
• The Undo move button takes back one move while your turn is not over yet.

Tips to play better

• Move in pairs whenever you can. Two checkers on one point cannot be hit, and they block your opponent too.
• Avoid leaving a checker alone within reach of your opponent, above all near your home: if it is hit, it loses all the ground it has covered.
• Make points in a row in front of the opposing checkers. Six blocked points in a line form a wall they cannot jump.
• Your 4-, 5- and 6-points and the 7-point are the most valuable ones to close early in the game.
• Hitting a checker is worth a lot when your home has several closed points, because it takes your opponent longer to come back in.
• The Left to go line shows how many points each side still has to travel. If you are ahead and the checkers have passed each other, just race home.
• While bearing off, prefer taking a checker off the board to tidying checkers inside your home.

Frequently asked questions