How to play backgammon (tavla): rules
- Goal
- Two players, 15 white and 15 black checkers. Bring all your checkers into your home board and bear them off before your opponent does.
- Setup
- The board has 24 points. Each player starts with 2 checkers on the 24-point, 5 on the 13-point, 3 on the 8-point and 5 on the 6-point (own numbering). Both players roll one die; the higher one starts and plays both dice as the first move. A tie is re-rolled.
- Moving
- Each turn you roll two dice. Checkers travel in opposite directions (you move from 24 towards 1). Each die moves a checker that many points; you may use both dice on one checker. Doubles (4-4) are played four times.
- Obligations
- You must play both dice if possible. If only one can be played, the higher one must be played when possible. With no legal move the turn passes.
- Points and hits
- A point with 2 or more of your checkers is closed: the opponent cannot land there. A point with a single checker is a blot: an opponent landing there hits it and the checker goes to the bar.
- The bar
- With a checker on the bar you may not move anything else. Enter it into the opponentโs home board on an open point (empty, a single enemy checker or your own). If all six points are closed you lose the turn.
- Bearing off
- When all 15 checkers are in your home board you start to bear off. A die removes a checker from the point of that number; if there is none you must move a farther checker, and if none is farther you may bear off the farthest checker with the bigger die.
- Scoring
- If the loser has borne off at least one checker the winner gets 1 point. If the loser has borne off nothing it is a gammon (mars): 2 points. If the loser has borne off nothing and still has a checker on the bar or in the winnerโs home board it is a backgammon (tavla): 3 points. A match is won by the first player to reach the chosen number of points.
- On this site
- The dice are rolled securely on the server and an illegal move cannot be played. Select a checker and the points it can reach light up: tap the point or drag the checker. Undo takes back the moves of the current turn; press โEnd Turnโ when you are done. If time runs out your turn is played for you.
- Computer
- Easy sometimes plays at random. Normal weighs made points, hits and blot risk. Hard calculates the opponentโs hitting chances in detail.