Backgammon — play online free with friends
Race your checkers home and bear them off first in the ancient dice duel.
The ancient two-player race. Roll the dice and run your 15 checkers around the board toward your home corner, hit enemy blots to send them to the bar, then bear everything off first to win.
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How to play Backgammon
Setup and aim
- Each player has 15 checkers arranged in the standard start position. Your home board is the bottom-right quarter of the board as you see it.
- Checkers travel around the 24 points toward your home board. Get all 15 into your home board, then bear them off — first to bear off all 15 wins.
- To open, each player rolls one die: the higher roll goes first and plays both opening dice. Ties are rerolled.
Moving
- On your turn, roll two dice. Each die moves one checker that many points forward; you may move the same checker twice or two different checkers.
- Doubles are played four times — four moves of that value.
- You may land on any point that is open, holds your own checkers, or holds exactly one enemy checker. A point with two or more enemy checkers is closed to you.
- You must use both dice if any order of play allows it, and as many doubles moves as possible. If only one die can be played and either would fit on its own, you must play the higher. Dice with no legal use are forfeited automatically.
Hitting and the bar
- A point with exactly one checker is a blot. Landing on an enemy blot hits it: that checker goes to the bar.
- While you have checkers on the bar you must enter them before any other move. A die enters a checker onto the matching point of the opponent's home board.
- If every entry point your dice allow is closed, your whole turn is forfeited automatically.
Bearing off
- Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board you may bear off: an exact roll takes a checker from the matching point off the board.
- A roll higher than your highest occupied point bears off from that highest point.
- If a checker is hit while you are bearing off, it must re-enter and travel home again before you may continue bearing off.
Winning
- The first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins.
- If the loser has borne off nothing, the win is a gammon; if they also have a checker on the bar or in the winner’s home board, it is a backgammon. This is a single game, so these are bragging rights only.
- There is no doubling cube — each match is played as one single game.