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Backgammon
Race your 15 checkers home and bear them off first: play the computer or a friend
Computer167 pips
You167 pips
Settings
The cube setting starts with your next game. In a friend game, the setting of the player who makes the game is used.
How to play, in one minute
You have the white checkers. They travel from point 24 down to point 1, around the board the way the numbers go, into your home board at the bottom right. Get all 15 home, then take them off the board. The first player to bear off all 15 wins.
- Move with the dice. Tap a checker, then tap a highlighted point (or a button under the board). Each die moves one checker that many points, and a double is played four times. The number on each highlight is the die it uses.
- Land on open points only. You can't land where the other side has two or more checkers. Land on a single one (a blot) and you hit it: it goes to the bar and has to start again.
- Use both dice if you can. The game only lets you make moves that keep that rule, and it tells you why when a move isn't allowed. If only one die can be played, it has to be the larger one.
- Bear off once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board (points 1 to 6). Tap a checker, then the tray on the right.
- Change your mind? Undo takes back any move until you tap Done. Pip counts next to each name show how far each side still has to go.
The full rules, with the doubling cube, gammons and backgammons, are on our how to play backgammon page. For opening moves, safe and risky blots and when to double, see backgammon strategy.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. No account, no download and no limit on games. Your game saves itself in your browser, so you can close the page and pick up where you left off.
Can I play backgammon with a friend online?
Yes. Tap Play a friend and send the link it gives you by text, email or chat. The game starts as soon as your friend opens it, on a phone or a computer. There's no sign-up and no chat. The server rolls the dice for both of you and checks every move. If either of you closes the page, opening it again picks up the same game. A friend game with no moves for 14 days is deleted.
Does it have the doubling cube?
Yes, as a setting. It's off when you start, so you can learn the moves first. Turn on "Use the doubling cube" in Settings and it starts with your next game: before you roll you can offer to double the stake, and the computer can double you. In a friend game, the setting of the player who makes the game is used.
How good is the computer?
Pick Strong or Easy in Settings. On the first move of a game the strong player uses the best opening moves published by Tom Keith on bkgm.com. After that it rates every possible move by the race, the blots it leaves and how many of the 36 rolls hit them, the points it holds and its primes, then looks one roll ahead at your best answer to each of them. The easy player likes to hit and make points and worries little about danger. In our tests the strong player beat the easy one in 559 of 600 games and a player making random legal moves in 497 of 500. Neither one can see the dice before they're rolled.
Can I take a move back?
Yes, until you tap Done. Undo takes back your moves one at a time. Once your turn is over it can't be undone, because the other side moves next.
Is there a hint button?
Yes. It shows the move the strong computer would make with your roll, numbered on the board in the order to play it. You get 6 hints per game, and asking again about the same position doesn't use another one.
What is the pip count?
The total number of points all your checkers still have to travel to get off the board (a checker on the bar counts 25). Both sides start at 167. Lower is better: whoever is ahead in the pip count is ahead in the race.
Who goes first?
Each player rolls one die. The higher number goes first and plays both of those numbers as the first move. If they're the same, both roll again.
Keep playing
- How to playThe setup, moving, hitting, bearing off and the doubling cube.
- StrategyOpening moves, safe and risky blots, primes and when to double.
- CribbageAnother classic for two, against the computer or a friend.
- Gin RummyMake sets and runs, knock low or go gin.
- FarkleRoll six dice, keep the scorers, and know when to stop.