Backgammon
Play Backgammon against an AI opponent. Roll the dice and race your checkers home — choose from Random, Smart, or Best CPU strategies.
How to Play Backgammon
- Select a side to play as (White, Black, PvP, or CPU). In CPU mode the AI controls both sides.
- On your turn, press 🎲 Roll in the centre of the board to roll the two dice (a double lets you play four moves).
- Click one of your checkers — its legal destinations light up. Each move must use one of the rolled dice values, and you must use as many dice as you can.
- Checkers hit onto a single opposing checker (a blot) send it to the bar; a checker on the bar must re-enter before any other piece can move.
- Once all 15 of your checkers reach your home board, bear them off. The first player to bear off all their checkers wins.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do the dice control my moves?
- You may only move checkers by the exact values shown on the dice. If both dice can be played you must play both, and if only one can be played you must play the larger value. The board only highlights moves the dice actually allow.
- What happens on a double?
- Rolling the same number on both dice gives you four moves of that value instead of two.
- What is the bar and how do I re-enter?
- When your single checker (a blot) is hit, it goes to the bar in the centre. You must re-enter it into the opponent's home board using a die roll before you can make any other move.
- What CPU strategies are available?
- Smart follows the rule-based AI priority order and picks randomly among hops with similar scores — strong but varied. Best always takes the highest-scored hop for the top-priority rule. Random picks any legal hop with no rules or scoring.
- How does the rule-based AI choose a hop?
- It works down a priority list: bear a checker off, hit a blot without exposing one of its own, re-enter from the bar, make a point in its home board, make a point anywhere, hit even at some risk, advance to a safe point, and otherwise avoid leaving a blot. Within whichever rule fires it takes the highest-scoring hop.
- Is the AI cautious about leaving blots?
- Very. Most rules require the move to leave no blot, and there is a catch-all near the bottom whose only job is to pick whichever hop exposes nothing. It will still hit at some risk when the exchange is worth it — that rule simply sits lower than the safe alternatives.