How to play Backgammon

What backgammon is

Backgammon is a race for two players. Each has fifteen checkers that travel in opposite directions around a board of 24 narrow triangles, called points. Two dice decide how far you move, but you choose how to use each roll, so skill wins in the long run. The first to bring all fifteen checkers home and take them off wins.

Playing backgammon on AllFun

In AllFun Backgammon, the Practice table is always free and pays a few coins for a win. City tables take an entry in play coins, from 100 to 25,000; the winner takes both entries, less 10%. Higher tables open as your level rises, and the computer plays a stronger game at the higher ones. Switch to Online players to play people, or open a room and send the code to a friend.

Every table is a best of 3 or best of 5. The doubling cube and gammons do not change the match score, but they multiply the coins you win, up to four times. Coins are play coins with no cash value. Each move has a 20-second clock plus a 90-second reserve for the whole match; against the computer you can pause it. Leaving a match before the end counts as a loss.

Tap Roll, then tap or drag a checker. Undo takes back a move while a die is still left to play. In the settings, Auto bear-off takes your checkers off for you once they are all home.

The rules

Setting up and starting

Each player starts with two checkers deep in the opponent's home board, five just across the middle, three in their own outer board and five on the six-point of their home board. To start, each player rolls one die; the higher number moves first, playing both numbers. Equal dice are rolled again.

Moving

• Each die moves one checker that many points. One checker may use both dice if it can stop on the point in between.
• A double is played four times: a roll of 5-5 is four moves of 5.
• You must use both dice if you can. If only one can be played, play the larger one when possible.
• You may land on an empty point, your own checkers, or a single enemy checker, called a blot. Two or more enemy checkers block a point.

Hitting and the bar

Landing on a blot hits it: the checker goes to the bar in the middle of the board. It must come back in, in the opponent's home board, before any other checker moves. If every entry point is blocked, the turn is lost.

Bearing off

Once all fifteen checkers are in your home board, each die removes a checker from the matching point. A higher number may bear off from your highest point if no checker stands further back.

The doubling cube, gammons and backgammons

Before rolling, you may offer to double the stakes. Your opponent either takes, and plays on at double value with the cube now theirs to offer next, or drops and loses the game at its current value. Winning before your opponent has borne off a single checker is a gammon, worth double. If they still have a checker on the bar or in your home board, it is a backgammon, worth triple.

Five tips for better backgammon

1. Make points, avoid blots. Two checkers together are safe and block your opponent. A lone checker can be hit and sent back.
2. Learn the best opening rolls. A 3-1 makes your five-point; a 6-1 makes the point just outside your home board.
3. Count the race. Ahead in the race? Run home safely. Behind? Keep a pair of checkers back and wait for a shot.
4. Double when you are clearly ahead, before your opponent can drop cheaply.
5. Take when you still have a fair chance: roughly one game in four or better.

A short history

Backgammon belongs to a family of dice race games thousands of years old; in ancient Rome a close relative called tabula was played on a board much like today's. The doubling cube is the newest part of the game: it appeared in the 1920s.

Backgammon FAQ