How to Play Backgammon
Backgammon is a race across 24 points, with 15 checkers on each side. Two dice shape every move, a hit sends a blot to the bar, and you can bear off only after every checker reaches your home board. Pick an AI level, choose a side, and start playing.
How a Game Starts
The board has 24 points, 12 on each side, and each player starts with 15 checkers. White travels from point 24 toward point 1; Black goes the other way. On each turn you roll two dice and use both numbers. Doubles let you play that number four times.
A single checker on a point is a blot. Land there and you hit it to the bar. If you have a checker on the bar, it must reenter before anything else can move. You can bear off only when all of your checkers are in your home board. This site does not use a doubling cube.
Control the Route Home
Do not spend your opening rolls chasing every blot. First look at how your own checkers can link up and which entry points the opponent will need from the bar. On a 24-point board, closing the route home is often worth more than one extra hit.
Blots Go to the Bar
Leave a single checker on a point and the opponent can hit it by landing there. A checker on the bar must come in before anything else moves; if both entry points are blocked, the turn is skipped. Hitting matters, but the blots you leave behind matter just as much.
Hints Match Your AI Level
Choose from multiple AI levels, then play as White to move first or as Black to respond. Hints come from the same level you selected, and undo rewinds both your move and the AI reply. After the game, replay the roll that wasted a die or the turn when the bear-off race slipped away. All AI calculation runs in your browser.
24points
15checkers each
2dice
Bear offends the game
