Play Backgammon Online

How to Play Backgammon Online

Choose a game level, from easy to challenge; your choice will result in receiving an appropriate opponent.

You will see the board already set up. Backgammon boards online are the same as in the traditional board game, the board consists of 24 alternating colored fingers, with pieces on some. If you don’t like the style of the board, it’s coloring or any other visual feature go to the options tab and specify your preferences

You will see a roll tab; this must be pressed every-time it is your turn to roll the dice. You will see the dice roll on the screen and display a result which is determined by a random number generator.

A good backgammon online website will also provide a section dedicated to rules of the game and tutorials; this is always worth a visit to get used to the layout and feel of each site.

Once you are familiar with all this you are ready to start playing. Backgamon online games aren't as daunting as they may first seem so read of for more on how to play backgammon.

To start, one die will be presented to you to roll in order to determine who goes first.

You need to get all of your pieces to your home base which is in the right hand quarter of the board closest to you, by moving your pieces clockwise according to the rolls of the dice.

If you roll, for example, 4 and 6, you may move one piece 4 places and one 6 places, or you one piece 10 spaces. However, with the later you can’t even ‘rest’ on a finger that has more than one of your opponent’s pieces on it; this is illegal.

If you land on a finger with just one of your opponent’s pieces you take him. His piece will automatically move to the bar in the middle of the board.

To re-enter a piece you must get it into your opponent’s base. Each of the fingers in both bases are numbered 1-6; 6 next to the bar, 1 on the outside. A number corresponding to a free finger, or a finger possessed by the person entering the piece must be rolled. Until a piece is back in, no other pieces can be played.

Once all pieces are in the base you start taking the pieces off according to the number of the fingers they’re sitting on.

The first one to get off all the pieces is the winner; however in competitive backgammon online game there is also the concept of doubling and for this there’s a separate die, called the doubling cube, with the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 on it. If you think you are going to win you challenge your opponent to ‘double’, there will be a doubling option on the screen. If you opponent refuses he automatically forfeits the game; if he accepts, the game is worth double the points.

Playing backgammon online is fairly easy to learn and players of the traditional backgammon game will find that online play is very similar and so you shouldn't have any problems mastering how the game works.