How to play Backgammon

The goal

Moving

• Your checkers travel from the top right, along the top, down the left and along the bottom to your home board. The computer’s go the opposite way.
• Each die moves one checker that many points. One checker can use both dice, one after the other, if the point it stops on in between is open.
• A point with two or more of the computer’s checkers is blocked. You can land on an empty point, your own, or one with a single opposing checker.
• Doubles are played four times. A 4 and 4 moves 4 points four times.
• You must play both dice if you can. If only one can be played, you must play the larger one if possible. If nothing can be played, your turn passes.

Hitting and the bar

• Landing on a single opposing checker (a blot) hits it: it goes to the bar in the middle.
• A checker on the bar must come back in, into the opposing home board, before any other checker moves. A 1 enters on the furthest point, a 6 on the nearest. Blocked points can’t be entered.

Bearing off and scoring

• Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, you can bear them off into the tray on the right: a 1 takes off a checker from the 1 point, a 6 from the 6 point.
• A die higher than your highest checker bears off from your highest point. A lower die must be moved inside the board if it can.
• The first to bear off every checker wins 1 point. If the loser hasn’t borne off any, it’s a gammon (2 points), and a backgammon (3 points) if the loser still has a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board.

Playing here

• The opening roll is one die each; the higher one moves first using both dice. After that, tap Roll (or the board) to roll.
• Tap a checker to light up where it can go, then tap a lit spot, or drag the checker there. Yellow rings mark checkers that can move.
• When your dice are played, tap Done. Undo takes back one checker at a time, or your whole last turn along with the computer’s reply (the dice stay the same).
• On a keyboard, Space or Enter rolls and confirms, Escape puts a checker down and Ctrl or ⌘ + Z undoes.
• Resigning gives the computer the game: 1 point, or a gammon if it has begun bearing off and you haven’t.

Levels and matches

• Easy makes loose plays, Normal picks the move its evaluation likes best, and Hard also looks ahead at every reply roll.
• Play a single game, or a match to 3, 5 or 7 points where gammons and backgammons count double and triple. There is no doubling cube.
• Your wins and best times are kept for each level.

Questions

Strategy guides