Backgammon

Overview

Roll the dice, count the pips, and race fifteen checkers from your starting points all the way home. Backgammon is one of the oldest two-player board games still widely played, with roots that reach back something like five thousand years, and it is also the rare classic where luck and skill genuinely share the table. Each roll gives you two numbers to spend as moves, and doubles hand you four moves of the same value, which can swing a position in a single turn. The real depth is in the geometry: leave a checker alone on a point and it becomes a blot the computer can hit, sending it all the way back to the bar; stack two or more on a point and you build a wall the opponent has to route around. Bear off all fifteen before the computer and the game is yours.

How to Play

After the dice roll, click a checker and then click the point you want to move it to; on touch screens it is a tap on the checker then a tap on the destination. Each die is a separate move, so a roll of five and two lets you move one checker five points and another two, or one checker seven points if both legs are legal. Rolling doubles — two fours, for example — gives you four moves of four rather than two. If a checker gets hit it lands on the bar and must re-enter through the opponent's home board before anything else moves. Once every one of your checkers has reached your own home board, you begin bearing off, and the first side to clear all fifteen wins.

Tips & Strategy

Avoid leaving blots wherever you can. A single checker on a point is a target, and the computer is happy to hit it and send your progress back to the bar; if you must leave one exposed, try to leave it close to the enemy checker so the direct shot is a low number. Build primes — consecutive points loaded with two or more of your checkers — to wall off the opponent's escape route, since a six-long prime is impossible to leap. When you are well ahead in the race, run for home and bear off; when you are behind, slow the computer down by holding points in its outer board. Remember that a doubled roll is four moves, not two, so plan all four before touching the first checker.