Backgammon

How to play Backgammon

Race your fifteen checkers round the board and bear them off first, hitting blots and doubling the points on the way.

Goal

Move all fifteen of your checkers into your home board — the six points in your bottom-right corner — and then bear them off. The first to bear off every checker wins.

Setup

Two players, White and Black, each with fifteen checkers: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point and five on your 6-point. You move towards your 1-point, your opponent the opposite way round.

The opening roll

Each player rolls one die and the higher number moves first, playing both of those dice as their opening roll. Ties are rolled again. After that, players take turns: tap Roll to throw two dice.

Moving

Each die moves one checker that many points: tap a checker, then where it goes. You may move one checker with both dice or two different checkers. A double is played four times. You cannot land on a point held by two or more of your opponent’s checkers.

Using your dice

You must use both dice if you can. If only one can be played, it must be the higher one when that is possible. If neither can be played, the turn passes. Undo takes back a checker during your turn; tap End turn once every die you can play is played.

Hitting and the bar

Land on a lone opposing checker (a blot) and it is hit: it goes to the bar in the middle of the board. A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back in, into the opponent’s home board, before moving anything else.

Bearing off

Once all your checkers are in your home board, a die can bear one off from the matching point. A die higher than any point you still occupy bears off from your highest point.

Gammons and backgammons

Winning scores a single game (1 point). If your opponent has not borne off a single checker it is a gammon (2 points); if they also still have a checker on the bar or in your home board it is a backgammon (3 points).

The doubling cube

If the table plays with the cube, you may offer to double the points the game is worth before you roll. Your opponent either takes — the game’s value doubles and the cube becomes theirs, so only they may redouble — or drops and loses the game at its current value.

Matches

A table can play a single game or a match to 3, 5 or 7 points. After each game the next one opens with a fresh roll. The game after someone first comes within one point of the match is the Crawford game, in which nobody may double.

Resigning

Resigning ends the match and gives your opponent the win, and the game’s points at the current cube value. Leaving a game in progress does the same.

These are the rules Piece of Cake plays, word for word: the same rulesheet is in the app under Help → Backgammon. Every roll, deal and move is checked on our servers, so nobody can bend them.

Other board games in the same subscription: Chess (2 players, about 10–60 minutes); Checkers (2 players, about 10–30 minutes); Reversi (2 players, about 10–25 minutes).