Backgammonics
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BackgammonicsEach side has 15 checkers and the board has 24 points. You move your checkers around towards your home board, the six points at the bottom right, and then take them off. The first side to bear off all 15 wins.
Each turn you roll two dice. Each die is a separate move: with a 5 and a 3 you can move one checker 5 and another 3, or one checker 8 in two steps. Doubles are played four times: 4-4 gives four moves of 4.
A checker may land on an empty point, on a point where you already have checkers, or on a point where the other side has a single checker. It may not land on a point where the other side has two or more: that point is closed to you.
You must play both dice if you can. If only one can be played, you must play the higher one when either could be.
Click or tap the dice to roll. The checkers that can move are ringed: click or tap one to pick it up, then the point it goes to. Nothing moves until you choose where. Your turn ends by itself when the dice are played; Take back returns to your roll if you want to play it differently. Turn on Destinations to see where the checker you picked up can land.
A single checker on a point is a blot. If the other side lands on it, it is hit and goes to the bar in the middle of the board.
A checker on the bar must come in before anything else moves. It enters in the other side's home board, on the point that matches a die: a 6 enters on their 6-point, a 3 on their 3-point. If that point is closed, that die cannot be used. If neither die can, you lose the turn.
Being hit costs you the distance the checker had travelled, and the turn spent coming back in. Hitting is often right, but a hit that leaves your own blot in reach can cost more than it wins.
Turn on Shots to see each blot that can be hit, and how many of the 36 rolls hit it.
Two or more checkers on a point make it. The other side cannot land there, and the checkers on it cannot be hit.
Points in your home board make it harder for a hit checker to come in. Points next to each other make a wall that the other side's checkers have to get around. Six in a row, a full prime, cannot be passed at all.
Both safe play and bold play have a price. Spreading your checkers to make points leaves blots on the way. Playing safe can leave you with no points to build on.
Turn on Points to make while you choose a play to see which points this roll lets you make.
Once the two sides' checkers have passed each other, nothing can be hit any more and the game is a race.
The pip count is how far a side has to go: each checker counts as the number of its point, and a checker on the bar counts 25. At the start each side has 167. A roll averages a little over 8 pips, counting doubles.
In a race the side with the lower count is ahead, and the lead matters more the shorter the race gets. The coach mentions the race beside another reason for its verdict on a play, when the race bears on it.
Turn on Pip counts to see both counts beside the board.
Once all 15 of your checkers are in your home board you can bear them off. A die takes off a checker from the point of that number: a 4 takes one off your 4-point.
If there is no checker on that point, you move a checker from a higher point down by that number. If there is none higher either, you take off a checker from your highest point instead.
A checker of yours that is hit while you bear off goes to the bar, and you must bring it all the way round again before you can bear off more. A blot left in your home board while the other side still has a checker back there can cost you the game.
A normal win is worth the stake on the cube. It is worth more when the loser has not got far enough.
A gammon is a win before the loser has borne off any checker. It counts double.
A backgammon is a gammon where the loser still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board. It counts triple.
This is why the coach also shows what a position is worth in points: it can be worth more than its win chance suggests if gammons are likely. The coach tells you when a play gave up or won gammon chances.
The cube starts in the middle. In the middle the cube shows 64, as real cubes do; the game is worth 1 until someone doubles. Before you roll, you may double: the game is now worth twice as much. The other side must take and play on for the higher stake, or pass and lose the game at the stake it was.
After a take the cube belongs to the side that took it, and only that side may double again. While the cube is in the middle, either side may double. In this version the cube stops at 64, there is no match length, and the running score against the AI is kept between visits. You can turn the cube off in the new game window.
When to take: passing costs 1 point and taking risks 2, so taking pays if you win about one game in four or more. As a rule of thumb, that is a take. It is only a rule of thumb: gammons against you make a take worse, and owning the cube afterwards makes it better.
When to double: if you wait until you are sure to win, the other side passes and you win only the old stake. A good double comes while the other side still has a real choice to make. Hint says what the coach would do with the cube before you roll, and the coach grades doubles, takes and passes as it grades checker plays.
Tab to the board, then ← → ↑ ↓ move around it and Enter picks a checker up and puts it down. The board says what is on each point when you reach it. When the dice wait to be rolled, one more Tab reaches them, and Enter or Space rolls.
Space roll · Backspace put a checker back · D double · T take and P pass when a double is offered · U take back · H hint · O their idea · Esc put away a hint or a preview
← → step through the game when the board does not have the focus (on the board they move its cursor); Home End PgUp and PgDn do too, on the board, its buttons or the graph (elsewhere they scroll the page).
These switch what is shown on the board: P pip counts · X shots · M points to make · V destinations · L last play · B best play · G grades · N point numbers.
R repeats the last announcement and S turns spoken announcements on or off. The letter keys can be turned off in Settings (Single-key shortcuts).