About Backgammon
Race your pieces home, then bear them off before your rival. Dice set the moves, while blocks, hits and the doubling cube shape your decisions. Choose a keeper, a trial or a second player.
How to play
- Goal
- Bear all fifteen of your checkers off before the other side does.
- How it ends
- That wins the game (a gammon or backgammon scores more); the first to the match length wins the match. In a Trial, find the play that wins most often.
- Record
- Each Trial keeps the fastest first solve; each keeper keeps your fastest win and fewest plays for every match length.
- Roll, then tap one of your checkers: the places it can land light up, marked with the die they use. Tap one. Done passes the dice; Undo takes a checker back until then.
- Play both dice if you can, the larger if only one fits. A double plays four times. A hit checker waits on the bar and must come in first.
- In matches of 3 points or more you may double before you roll. The other side takes and owns the cube, or passes and loses the game at the old stake.
- Trials: find the play that wins most often. A play that is not the best goes back and the clock keeps running; it started when the Trial opened.
- Two players: both sides on one device, the board turning to face whoever is to play.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Click · Tap | Pick a checker, then where it lands |
| ← → ↑ ↓ | Walk the points in the direction of play |
| Enter · Space | Pick up or land a checker |
| R · D · U | Roll, double, undo a checker |
| Escape | Put a checker down, or leave the table |
| N · New game | Start the match again from the opening (an abandoned keeper match is a loss) |
Good to know
Every die of a match can be recomputed from the secret the ledger reveals. Matches in hand, your records and Trial times stay in this browser; the fastest time on each Trial is shared with every player.
