Backgammon rules for beginners

The board has 24 points (the long triangles), and each player numbers them from their own side. Your 1-point is the corner point beside the tray where your finished checkers stack, and the numbers climb round to your 24-point, which is your opponent's 1-point.

Your checkers only move from higher numbers to lower ones. Points 1 to 6 are your home board and 7 to 12 your outer board, with the bar, the strip down the middle of the board, between them. Points 13 to 24 are your opponent's. Against the computer and online your home board is always in the bottom half; on one screen, Player 1's is at the bottom.

Both sides start on the same four numbers, counted from their own side, so each of your groups faces one of theirs across the board. Each side has 167 pips (steps) to travel. That total is your pip count, and the lower one is ahead in the race.

• 2 on your 24-point, in your opponent's home board.
• 5 on your 13-point, in your opponent's outer board.
• 3 on your 8-point, in your outer board.
• 5 on your 6-point, in your home board.

The game opens with one die each. The higher number goes first and plays both opening numbers as its first roll. There are no ties: our opening always deals two different numbers. The board says, for example, "You 5 · Them 3, you go first!".

After that you start each turn by tapping the board to roll. Each die is a separate move: with a 5 and a 2 you move one checker 5 and another 2, or one checker 5 and then 2 more. Tap a checker, then a glowing spot; a small die on the spot shows which number it uses. Moving one checker by both numbers takes two taps, and the point it stops on in between has to be open.

Doubles count twice: 4 and 4 moves 4 points four times. Your turn ends by itself once nothing is left to play.

You can't skip a number you're able to play. The board only lights up moves that use as many of your dice as possible:

• If both dice can be played, you must play both, even if that only works in one order.
• If only one can be played and either would fit alone, you must play the larger. Whenever only the larger number will do, the board says "Use the 6!" (or whichever is higher).
• If the larger can't be played anywhere, you play the smaller.
• With doubles you play as many of the four as you can.
• If nothing can move, the board says "No moves" and the turn passes.

A point with 2 or more of your checkers is made, and your opponent can't land on it. There's no limit to how many share a point; past 5, the fifth checker shows the total. A checker on its own is a blot. Land exactly on an enemy blot and it's hit: it goes to the bar. When a hit and a quiet move are both legal, you choose.

A checker on the bar has to come back in before any other of yours can move. It enters on the point of your opponent's home board that matches the die: a 1 on their 1-point (your 24-point), a 6 on their 6-point (your 19-point). It can enter on an empty point, your own or a blot, which it hits, but not on a point they've made. With 2 on the bar and only one number that gets in, one enters and your turn ends. If they've made all six home points (a closed board), nothing can enter and every roll is "No moves" until a point opens.

Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board, with none on the bar, you can take them off. A die bears off from the point with its number (a 4 from your 4-point), or you can move a checker inside instead. A die higher than your highest checker takes one off your highest point. It can't reach past a checker further back, though: with your highest on the 5-point and your 3-point empty, a 3 bears nothing off and has to move a checker 3 points.

If you're hit while bearing off, you stop until that checker has come back in and travelled home again. The first to bear off all 15 wins; there are no draws.

If the loser hasn't borne off a checker, the board says "Gammon!". If they also still have one on the bar or in the winner's home board, it says "Backgammon!". Where backgammon is played for points those count 2 and 3. On our board they're only words: every game is one win or one loss, and your level and records count it that way.

There's no doubling cube and no match to a set score.

Each of these follows from the rules above, and each is something the computer's own scoring rewards.

• Make points by moving two checkers to one place. From the start, 3-1 makes your 5-point (8 to 5, 6 to 5), 4-2 your 4-point (8 to 4, 6 to 4) and 6-1 your 7-point (13 to 7, 8 to 7). Home board points count most, as a hit checker can't come in on them.
• Count before you leave a blot. Not counting blocked points, a blot 6 points in front of an enemy checker is hit by 17 of the 36 rolls, 1 point in front by 11, and 7 or 8 points in front by only 6. Past 6 they need both dice together or a double.
• If you must leave one, leave it where a hit costs least. Hit on your 24-point, a checker loses 1 pip; on your 2-point, 23.
• Build a wall: six made points in a row can't be passed, since one move is never more than 6.
• Run when you're ahead, hold when you're behind. With the lower pip count, get your back checkers out: once every checker is past every enemy checker, nobody can be hit and it's a pure race. Behind, keep a made point in their home board (an anchor) and wait for a blot.

Easy picks any legal move at random, one die at a time.

Medium tries every way to play the whole roll and scores where each ends: the race (your pips minus its own), plus 4 for each made point, 8 in its home board or on its 7-point, and 6 more for one in your home board. Its longest run of 3 or more made points adds the run's length squared, if one of your checkers is still behind it. A blot costs the chance you hit it, out of 36, times the pips it would lose plus 45, and a checker on the bar costs 8 plus 3 for each point you've made at home. Your side is scored the same way and taken off. In a pure race it counts only pips, plus 3 for each checker it has borne off more than you.

Hard takes Medium's 6 best plays and, for each, tries all 21 different rolls you could throw next, with your best reply to each, then plays the one that holds up best on average, except in a pure race, where it plays Medium's move. Our tests check that Medium beats Easy in at least 30 of 40 games and Hard beats Medium in at least 55 of 100.

The computer never picks or sees the dice. Against it they come from their own random stream, started fresh each game and kept apart from the computer's own random choices; online the game server rolls them. Start on Easy, then try Medium: it hits the blots you leave.

It’s free in your browser, with no sign-up. Play Backgammon against the computer, with a friend on the same screen, or send a friend a link and play online. Or tap Quick match to play someone new.

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