Backgammon: play free online

Choose classic backgammon for hitting, reentry from the bar and the doubling cube. Choose Long Nardy for a race from two starting heads, without hitting. Both variants support a computer opponent, two people sharing one device and online rooms.

Which backgammon variant should I choose?

Classic backgammon is also called short nardy in Russian. Each player starts with checkers distributed across four points and moves in the opposite direction to the opponent. Two opposing checkers close a point. A lone checker can be hit and sent to the bar. Before moving anything else, its owner must bring it back into play through the opponent's home board. This creates decisions about exposed checkers, anchors and closing entry points.

Long Nardy, also known as long narde, starts with all fifteen checkers on one head per player. Both sides travel in the same direction. An opposing checker blocks a point on its own, and no checker is hit or sent to a bar. You may normally move only one checker off the head per turn. The second player's first roll allows two when it is double three, four or six. A six point prime may not trap every opposing checker, including during an intermediate move. This makes the timing of leaving the head and building a blockade central to the game.

Using the dice and bearing off

The opening roll gives one die to each player. The higher result starts and uses both dice; a tie is rolled again. After that, each turn uses two dice. Their numbers represent separate moves, so a combined journey needs a legal intermediate stop. Use both dice whenever possible. If either die can be played but both cannot, the higher die must be used. Doubles provide four moves with the same value.

Bring every checker into your home board before bearing off. An exact die removes a checker from the corresponding point. An oversized die can remove only the furthest remaining checker. Classic backgammon scores an ordinary win, gammon or backgammon with the doubling cube. Our Long Nardy table scores one point, or two if the opponent has borne off none, and does not use a doubling cube. Neither variant involves money stakes.

A board you can pick up and move on

The wooden playing panels carry carved ornaments beneath the points. The checkers have three dimensional bodies, grooved rims and a wood texture. Grab a checker with the mouse or hold it with a finger, then drag it over the board and release it. An invalid drop returns the checker without spending a die. You can also select a checker and then its destination, or use the keyboard.

The dice tumble and bounce separately before coming to rest. Impact sounds follow their contacts with the table. Computer moves travel above successive columns, with a pause between moves so you can follow the turn. Reduced motion preferences shorten the visual movement. Sound effects and background music have separate switches beside the board.

Help that fits your experience

Guides offers three choices: mark movable checkers and destinations, show destinations only after selecting a checker, or remove legal move markings entirely. The choice is saved. An explicit hint remains available when you request one. Local moves can be undone until the turn passes automatically. Three computer levels change move evaluation, never the dice result.

Online rooms for each rule set

Open Play online from this catalogue page, choose the variant in the lobby and create a room, use quick matching or join with a room code. Quick matching keeps short and long rules separate. The room determines the rules for both players, while the server rolls the dice and validates moves. A returning player receives the saved room position. Local short and long games have separate saves, so switching variants does not overwrite the other board. The game interface is available in English, Polish and Russian.

When the dice are used or no legal move remains, the game passes the turn automatically after the animation. A blocked position gets a brief explanation. This applies to both variants against the computer, on one device and online.