Play backgammon online

Invite a friend with a short code or a link, or get matched with someone new. Free, in your browser, and you can start as a guest in seconds.

Play a friend

To play someone you know:

1. Open the game and choose Online.
2. Under Invite a friend, pick a match length: a single game or a match to 3, 5, 10 or 15 points.
3. You get a 6-letter code and a link. Send either one by text, chat or email.
4. Your friend opens the link, or enters the code under Have a code?, and the game begins.

Your friend can join from a browser on any device, and from the iPhone app. The invite stays valid for a day, so they do not need to be online at the moment you create it.

Play a random opponent

Want a game now? Under Play people online, tap a match length and you join the queue. As soon as another player is looking for a game of the same length, you are paired and the match starts. You can leave the queue at any time.

Matches use the full rules: the doubling cube, gammons and backgammons, and the Crawford rule in matches. If any of that is new, read how to play, the doubling cube guide and match play first, or warm up against the computer (see play vs computer).

Ratings and the leaderboard

Every online match, whether with a friend or a random opponent, counts toward your rating. Ratings use an Elo-style system: everyone starts at 1500, the winner of a match takes points from the loser, and the number of points depends on the gap between your ratings. Beat a stronger player and you gain a lot; lose to a weaker one and you drop more.

The leaderboard shows the top-rated players. Because backgammon has plenty of luck in each game, ratings settle down only after a good number of matches, and longer matches reward skill more than single games do.

Guest or account

You can start straight away as a guest. You get a random player name, and no email address is needed. Your rating and games are kept for that guest on that device.

To keep your name and rating for good, and to use them on another device, create an account with a username and password (Save your account). If you have been playing as a guest, creating an account keeps your rating and your games. On iPhone you can also use Sign in with Apple.

At the table: timers and emotes

Each move has a timer, so games keep moving. If your opponent runs out of time, or leaves and does not come back, you can claim the win. If your connection drops, reconnect and the game picks up where it left off.

There is no open chat. Instead you can send quick emotes: gg, nice and oops. They are enough to be friendly without inviting anything unpleasant.

Fair play

The server rolls the dice using a cryptographic random number generator and checks every move against the rules. The opening roll is rolled by the server too. Neither player can choose their dice or make an illegal move, whatever device they use.

Good dice and bad dice even out over time. If a result feels unfair, the odds page shows how often things really happen: doubles come up one roll in six, and a blot 6 pips away is hit almost half the time.

Questions

Keep learning