Backgammon — Rules

Goal

The first player to bring all 15 checkers home and bear them off wins the game. The first to reach the chosen number of points (1, 3, 5 or 7) wins the match.

Board and direction

The board has 24 points. Your checkers move anticlockwise; your home board is the 6 points at the bottom right (1–6). Your opponent moves the other way.

Starting

Each player rolls one die; the higher roll starts by rolling both dice again. Ties are re-rolled. Every new game starts this way.

Dice and moves

Each die is a separate move: one checker may move both numbers, or two checkers one number each.
Doubles (e.g. 4-4) are played four times.
You cannot land on a point held by two or more opposing checkers.
If both dice can be played you must play both. If only one can be played and the dice differ, you must play the larger one.
If no move is possible, your turn passes.

Hitting

Landing on a point with a single opposing checker hits it; the checker goes to the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must enter it into the opponent's home board before making any other move.

Bearing off

Once all your checkers are home you may bear off. A die equal to a checker's point bears it off; a higher die may bear off the furthest checker if no checker is further back.

Scoring

The winner of a game scores 1 point.
If the loser has not borne off any checkers it is a gammon: 2 points.
There is no doubling cube in this version.

On screen

Tap the checker you want to move; its possible destinations are highlighted. Tap a highlighted point.
To bear off, tap the bear-off tray at the bottom right.
Use Undo to take back moves within your turn, then tap Confirm when done.

Playing on the portal

Computer players never cheat; they cannot see your cards or any hidden information.
Chance elements such as shuffling and dice use a secure random number generator and give no one an advantage.
Scored / Test: a scored game counts for the leaderboard of that game and level. Test games are not recorded anywhere; they have no move timer and undo can be enabled.
Points: at every level a win is +1, a draw 0, a loss −1. In 3–4 player games the sole winner gets +1, the last place −1, the others 0; a shared first place gets 0, a shared last place −1. Partners get the same points. The number of hands or target does not change this.
Move time: in a scored game you must move within the time you chose (chess 20–300 s, other games 30–300 s). A countdown is shown with a warning in the last 10 seconds. End-of-hand windows do not count.
Leaving the table: in a scored game the Exit button, starting a new game of the same kind, closing your account, losing the connection for more than 3 minutes, running out of move time and long inactivity all count as leaving:
Leaving in the first hand or in a one-hand game is a loss (−1).
Later, if you are in sole first place on the completed hands, no points are recorded; otherwise it is a loss.
In partnership games: if your team is ahead you get no points and your partner +1; if level, you −1 and your partner 0; if behind, both −1.
In chess the material is compared (pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9): behind in material is a loss; level or ahead scores 0.
Resigning in chess counts as a loss.