Backgammon the rules
▶ Play BackgammonA race with two dice. Bring all 15 of your checkers round the board into your home and bear them off first — while hitting your opponent's lone checkers on the way.
The board
24 narrow triangles called points, in four quarters of six. You see the board from your side: your home is the six points at the bottom right (your points 1–6). You move from your 24-point round to your 1-point; your opponent moves the other way.
Who starts? Each player rolls one die; the higher one starts and plays those two numbers.
Moving
Roll two dice and move a checker the number of points on each die. One checker may use both numbers, or two checkers one each. A double (two of the same) is played four times.
You may land on an empty point, on your own checkers, or on a point with a single enemy checker. You may not land on a point held by two or more enemy checkers.
Hitting and the bar
A single checker on a point is a blot. Land on an enemy blot and it is hit: it goes to the bar in the middle. A checker on the bar must come back in first, on your opponent's home board, before any other checker may move. If the points it could enter are all held, the turn passes.
Using the dice
- Play both numbers if you can.
- If only one can be played, play the higher one if possible.
- With no legal move, the turn passes.
Bearing off
When all fifteen of your checkers are in your home, you may bear off: a die takes a checker off from the point with that number. A higher die than your highest checker takes one off from the highest point.
Winning
The first to bear off all fifteen wins a single game (1 point). If the loser has not borne off any checker, it is a gammon (2 points); if the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home, a backgammon (3 points). There is no doubling cube here (yet).
Playing here
- Roll with the cup, the button or by shaking your phone (⚙). The server rolls every die.
- Click a glowing checker, then where it should go; click it twice to move it by the higher die. Undo takes back a step, Done sends the turn.
- Resign gives your opponent the win; End game stops the game without a winner.
- Logged in with Discord, a win against the computer unlocks rewards: Easy — checker colours, Medium — 3D checkers, Hard — a crown on your HAKOO avatar.