Backgammon

Race your fifteen sweets home and bear them off first

How to play

Backgammon on Matsuri is free online backgammon for two players: race your fifteen sweets around the board, hit the other side's lone pieces and bear all fifteen off first. Send a friend an invite link to play in Telegram or any browser, or play Mocha, the hall's host, who weighs every way to play her roll. It runs on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download or sign-up.

Backgammon for two with the standard rules and starting position. Each side races fifteen sweets around 24 points in opposite directions, toward its own home board. Roll two dice and move by each one; doubles play four times, and you must use as many dice as you can. A lone sweet that is hit goes to the bar and must come back in before anything else moves. Once all fifteen are home, bear them off; the first to bear off all fifteen wins. The server rolls the dice and shows each side's pip count. Play a friend by invite link, or play Mocha. One game to a winner, no doubling cube.

  1. Tap the board to roll two dice, then tap one of your sweets and a lit point to move it by one die. Doubles move four times.
  2. Use every die you can. A lone sweet hit by the other side goes to the bar and has to come back in first.
  3. Once all fifteen are in your home board (bottom right), move them off the board. The first to bear off all fifteen wins.

How to play Backgammon

The board has 24 points in four quarters, and each player starts from the standard setup: two sweets on their 24-point, five on the 13, three on the 8 and five on the 6. The two sides move in opposite directions, each toward its own home board, the last six points. On your turn tap the board to roll two dice; each die moves one sweet that many points, and a double is played four times. A sweet may land on an empty point, on its own sweets or on a point with a single opposing sweet, but never on a point held by two or more of the other side.

You must use as many of the dice as the position allows, and if only one of the two can be played it must be the larger. Landing on a lone opposing sweet, a blot, hits it: it goes to the bar in the middle, and its owner must bring it back in to the other side's home board before moving anything else. Once all fifteen of your sweets are in your home board you bear them off: a die takes off a sweet from the matching point, and a higher die takes one off your highest point when none stand further back. The first to bear off all fifteen wins.

Each match is one game to a winner, with no doubling cube, so a gammon or backgammon is simply a win. The first seat rolls first, and in a rematch the seats turn so the other player starts.

Backgammon strategy and tips

  • Make points, not blots. Two or more sweets on a point are safe and block the other side; a single sweet within reach of an opposing sweet is a target.
  • The most valuable points early on are your 5-point and the 7-point next to your home board. Together with your 6-point they build a wall that the other side's back sweets struggle to get past.
  • Read the pip count on each player's strip; it shows how far each side still has to go. Ahead in the race, break contact and run for home. Behind, keep an anchor in the other home board and wait for a shot.
  • Hit when it costs you little. A sweet sent to the bar loses its whole journey, and against a strong home board it may wait several turns to come back in.
  • Bear off safely. While the other side still has a sweet on the bar or back in your home board, clear your points from the back and avoid leaving a single sweet open.

Modes and difficulty

Play a friend: open a table, send the invite link, and the game starts when they sit down; anyone else who opens a full table can watch. With a friend you can play at your own pace, with up to a day for each turn. Play Mocha: she rolls the same server dice, tries every legal way to play her roll and keeps the position she likes best, favouring a lower pip count, hits, made points and few exposed blots. A game against Mocha that nobody touches for an hour is closed with no result. After a game, ask for a rematch.

Playing Backgammon on Matsuri

The server rolls both dice from a generator no player can see and works out the legal plays itself, so the board lights up only the points you may move to and the use-all-dice rule is applied for you. Each player's strip shows their pip count. Playing her, Mocha reacts to big hits and to a player close to bearing off the last sweets. A finished game pays a little candy once it has gone at least 60 moves, rolls and sweet moves together, so resigning at once pays nothing: against a friend 15 for a win and 5 for a loss, against Mocha 6 for a win, within the day's candy budget.

A little history

Backgammon belongs to the tables family of race games, among the oldest board games still played. The Romans played tabula on much the same board, Persia and the Near East played nard, and the name backgammon appears in England in the 17th century. The doubling cube came in New York in the 1920s. In Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia the same game is known as short nardy, beside long nardy, where nothing is ever hit.

Questions

Can I play backgammon online for free with a friend?
Yes. Open a table, send the invite link, and your friend plays in Telegram or any browser. There is no download, no ads and no sign-up.
Is there a doubling cube?
No. Each game is played to a single winner with the standard rules and no doubling cube, so a gammon counts as an ordinary win.
Do I have to use both dice?
You must use as many dice as the position allows, and if only one of the two can be played it must be the larger. The board lights up only moves that follow this rule.
Is this the same as nardy?
It is backgammon, the game played in Russia and the Caucasus as short nardy, with hitting and the bar. Long nardy, where nothing is hit, is a different game.
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