Backgammon Online Free

Play backgammon online for free, right in your browser. Roll the dice, race your 15 checkers around the board, hit your opponent’s blots and bear off before they do. The game follows the standard rules, including doubles, the bar, re-entry and the rule that you must use both dice when you can, and it highlights every legal move, so it is easy to learn and quick to play for beginners and experienced players alike.

How to play

1. Roll two dice and move your checkers by the numbers shown; doubles are played four times.
2. Tap a highlighted checker, then a highlighted point (or drag it). You may not land on a point held by two or more enemy checkers.
3. Land on a single enemy checker to hit it to the bar; a checker on the bar must re-enter before anything else moves.
4. You must use both dice if you can; if only one can be played, play the larger.
5. Bring all 15 checkers into your home board, then bear them off. The first to bear off every checker wins.

Controls

• Press “Roll dice” (or the space bar) to roll. The dice you still have to play stay bright; used dice fade out.
• Tap or click a highlighted checker, then a highlighted point or the tray on the right to bear off. You can also drag a checker to its target.
• Changed your mind? Use Undo to take back moves within the current turn, then press Done (or Enter) to pass the dice.
• The pip counts above the board show how far each side still has to travel.

Tips and strategy

• Make points, not blots. Two or more checkers on a point are safe; a lone checker can be hit and sent back to the start.
• Your 5-point and 4-point are the most valuable points to own early: they block your opponent and build a strong home board.
• Build a prime, a row of consecutive blocked points. Six in a row is a wall your opponent cannot jump over.
• When you are well ahead in the pip count, break contact and turn the game into a pure race.
• If you must leave a blot, leave it where fewer enemy rolls can hit it, ideally more than six points away from your opponent’s checkers.
• Bear off efficiently: spread your checkers across the home board so that every roll takes a checker off.

Game modes and difficulty

Play against the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard, or choose 2 Players to play a friend on the same device. Easy plays random legal moves, Medium follows simple rules of thumb, and Hard checks every possible way to play each roll and weighs the race, its safe points, primes and the risk of being hit. Your wins against the computer are counted.

History and background

Backgammon belongs to the “tables” family of race games, which goes back thousands of years. The Roman game tabula and the Persian game nard were played with 15 checkers per side on a similar board, and many local versions spread through the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

The English name backgammon appears in the 17th century. The game is especially popular in Turkey, Greece, Iran and Israel, where it is known as shesh besh, from the Persian for “six–five”. The doubling cube used in tournament play was added in the 1920s; this version plays single games without it.

Frequently asked questions