Play Backgammon Against AI
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
Common questions
Is backgammon mostly luck or mostly skill?
The dice decide how far you can move, but you decide what to do with the roll. One player turns a 6-1 into a blocking point; another leaves two blots behind. Luck can swing a single game. Over a few dozen games, the better decisions show up clearly in the results.
How do doubles work?
A double gives you four moves instead of two. Roll 3-3 and you move 3 pips four times, with one checker or spread across several. If you can't play all four, you play as many as the board allows.
Do I have to use both dice?
Yes, whenever you can. If both numbers are playable, you must play both. If only one of them can be used, the rules make you play the larger one. The board applies this for you and won't accept a move that breaks it.
Why can't I move after rolling?
Usually you have a checker on the bar and your opponent has blocked the entry points you rolled. Nothing else can move until that checker comes in, so the turn is lost. It also happens when every number you rolled lands on a point held by two or more enemy checkers.
When should I hit a blot?
A hit sends your opponent's checker back to the start, which is a big gain. Before you take it, check whether the move leaves a blot of your own that they can hit straight back from the bar. Late in the race, one well-timed hit often decides the game.
What are a gammon and a backgammon?
If you bear off all 15 checkers before your opponent has borne off any, that's a gammon and it counts for 2 points. If they also still have a checker on the bar or in your home board, it's a backgammon, worth 3. Otherwise a win is worth 1 point.
Is there a doubling cube?
No. Every game here is a single game without the cube, scored as a normal win, gammon, or backgammon, and there's no match score carried between games. If you want to practise cube decisions, you'll need a site that supports it.
Is the hint always the best move?
The hint comes from the AI level you've selected, so on a lower level it shows what that level would play, not a stronger engine's answer. Try picking your own move first and then compare. When they differ, undo and play both lines out.
Why does undo take back two moves?
Against the AI, undo removes your last turn together with the AI's reply, so it's your turn again with the same roll you had. Taking back only one move would leave you replaying the AI's turn for it.
Do I need an account or an app?
Neither. Open the page on a phone, tablet, or computer and start playing; the AI runs in your own browser. If you play often, you can add the site to your home screen and launch it from an icon, but that's optional.
