How to Play Backgammon
Backgammon is a race with a fight in the middle. You and your opponent each move fifteen checkers around the board in opposite directions, and the first to get all of them home and off the board wins. The dice decide how far you move. You decide which checkers move, and that is where the skill is.
The board
The board has 24 long triangles called points, twelve along each side. A strip down the middle, called the bar, splits it into four quarters of six points each.
The points are numbered from each player's own side. Your 1-point is the bottom right corner and your 24-point is the top right corner. The computer counts the other way round, so your 24-point is its 1-point.
- Your home board is your 1-point to 6-point, in the bottom right. This is where you bear off.
- Your outer board is your 7-point to 12-point, bottom left.
- The top half of the board is the computer's side, with its home board in the top right.
The starting position
Each side starts with the same layout, mirrored:
- 2 checkers on the 24-point (these are your "back checkers", the furthest from home)
- 5 checkers on the 13-point (called the midpoint)
- 3 checkers on the 8-point
- 5 checkers on the 6-point
Your checkers travel from the 24-point down to the 1-point: along the top from right to left, then along the bottom from left to right.
Your first turn, step by step
At the start, each side rolls one die. The higher roll goes first and plays both numbers. Say you roll a 3 and the computer rolls a 1. You go first with 3 and 1.
A good play is to move one checker from your 8-point to your 5-point (8 minus 3) and one from your 6-point to your 5-point (6 minus 1). Now you have two checkers on your 5-point. That is called making a point, and it is the best thing you can do with a 3-1 at the start. Players write this move as 8/5 6/5.
After that, you take turns. Each turn you roll both dice and play both numbers.
How checkers move
- Each die is a separate move. With a 6 and a 2 you can move one checker six points and another two points, or one checker eight points in total.
- If one checker uses both numbers, the point it stops on in between must be open too.
- A checker can land on a point that is empty, that has your own checkers on it, or that has exactly one enemy checker.
- A point with two or more enemy checkers is closed to you.
- Rolling a double, like 4 and 4, gives you four moves of that number instead of two.
- You must play both numbers if you can. If only one can be played, you must play it. If either one could be played but not both, you must play the higher.
Hitting and the bar
A single checker on its own is called a blot. If you land on an enemy blot, you hit it and it goes onto the bar. The same can happen to your blots.
A checker on the bar must come back in, or enter, before its owner can move anything else. It enters in the other side's home board: roll a 3 and it comes in on the opponent's 3-point, which is your 22-point. If that point is closed, you can't use that number to enter. If neither number works, you lose your turn.
Being hit hurts, because the checker has to start its journey again from the very beginning.
Bearing off
Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, you can start taking them off the board. This is bearing off.
- A roll of 4 bears off a checker from your 4-point.
- If there is no checker on that point, you must move a checker from a higher point instead, if you have one.
- If there are no checkers on higher points, you can bear off from your highest point. With checkers only on your 1, 2 and 3-points, a 6 bears off from the 3-point.
- You can always choose to move a checker inside your home board instead of bearing one off.
- If one of your checkers is hit while you are bearing off, you must bring it all the way home again before you bear off any more.
Winning
The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins. If the loser has not borne off a single checker, that's a gammon and counts double. If the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board, it's a backgammon and counts triple.
Playing on this site
Press Roll dice, then tap a checker to see where it can go. The glowing points are legal moves. Tap one, or drag the checker there. When you've used your dice, press Done. Undo takes back your moves until then, and Hint suggests a play if you're stuck. Start on Easy while you learn the moves, then work your way up to Extreme.
Ready for more detail? The full rules cover the doubling cube and match play, and the strategy guide covers how to win more often.