How to play
Backgammon is a 2,000-year-old race game. Two modes share the same dice but split on the rules — pick whichever you grew up with, or learn the other in two minutes.
True for every mode
Roll two dice each turn. Doubles play four times the value. Use as much of the roll as is legally possible — if only one die can be played, you must play it.
Once all 15 of your checkers reach your home board you start bearing them off. A die that's higher than your highest occupied point bears off the highest checker.
First to bear off all 15 checkers wins. Scoring depends on whether the loser has borne anything off — see each mode below.
The two modes
Traditional Backgammon
International standard. Distributed setup, opposite directions, hit-and-bar.
- Setup
- Each player places 15 checkers as 2 / 5 / 3 / 5 — two on the 24-point, five on the 13-point, three on the 8-point, five on the 6-point.
- Movement
- Each player moves toward their own home board (points 1–6). A point held by 2+ opposing checkers is blocked. A point with a single opposing checker — a blot — can be hit.
- Hitting and the bar
- Hitting sends the opposing checker to the bar. A player with checkers on the bar must re-enter every one of them onto the opponent's home board before making any other move.
- Scoring
- Single (1 pt): the loser has borne off at least one checker. Gammon (2 pt): zero borne off. Backgammon (3 pt): zero borne off and the loser still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home.
Long Nardy
Russian variant. All checkers start on one head, both sides race counter-clockwise, no hitting.
- Setup
- All 15 checkers start stacked on a single point — the head — located in the opponent's home board (point 24 from your perspective).
- Movement
- Both players move counter-clockwise around the full board. A point held by an opposing checker simply blocks movement to that point. There is no hitting and no bar.
- The head rule
- Only one checker may leave the head each turn. The single exception: on the opening roll, doubles of 3-3, 4-4 or 6-6 let two checkers leave the head on that turn.
- The 6-prime rule
- You can never form a contiguous block of 6 occupied points if it would trap all of the opponent's checkers behind it. At least one opposing checker must always have a legal way past. The restriction lifts once the opponent has begun bearing off.
- Scoring
- Oin (1 pt): the loser has borne off at least one checker. Mars (2 pt): zero borne off. There is no Backgammon-equivalent here because there is no bar.
Quick glossary
- Pip
- The total distance — sum of dice — you'd need to roll to bear off every remaining checker.
- Blot
- A point with exactly one of your checkers. In Traditional it's vulnerable; in Long Nardy it just blocks one square.
- Prime
- A wall of consecutive occupied points that an opposing checker cannot jump over.
- Anchor
- A point in the opponent's home board that you hold with 2+ checkers — useful as a foothold late in the game.
- Bar
- The raised ridge between the two halves of the board where hit checkers wait to re-enter (Traditional only).
- Bear off
- Removing your checkers from the board once all 15 are in your home board.