Rocket Backgammon: play backgammon online free

What is Rocket Backgammon?

Rocket Backgammon is the full game of backgammon in your browser: two players, fifteen checkers each, two dice and a race to bring your checkers home and bear them off before your opponent does. Hit single checkers to send them back to the bar, build points to block your opponent, and use the doubling cube to raise the stakes when you are ahead.

Play the computer at four levels, from Easy, which makes plenty of mistakes, to Insane, which looks ahead through the dice and handles the cube like a strong player. Invite a friend online by link or code, take on a random player with quick match, or share one screen. Matches go to 1, 3, 5 or 7 points with gammons, backgammons and the Crawford rule. Tap or drag your checkers, see every legal destination light up, and undo before you confirm a move.

How to play Rocket Backgammon

1. Choose vs Computer (Easy, Medium, Hard or Insane), Online or Same screen, and a match length of 1, 3, 5 or 7 points. Each game starts with both players rolling one die; the higher die moves first using both numbers.
2. Roll the dice and move your checkers toward your home board, the six points in the bottom right of your side, by the numbers rolled. Each die is a separate move, and doubles are played four times. Tap a checker to see where it can go, then tap a highlighted point or drag the checker there.
3. You may land on any point that is empty, holds your own checkers, or holds a single opposing checker (a blot), which you hit and send to the bar. Points with two or more opposing checkers are blocked.
4. A checker on the bar must come back in through your opponent's home board before you can move anything else. If you can use both dice you must; if only one, you must use the larger when it can be played. The board only offers legal moves.
5. Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board, bear them off with the dice. The first player to bear off every checker wins the game: a single game, a gammon (double) if the loser has borne off none, or a backgammon (triple) if the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board.
6. Before rolling you may offer the doubling cube. Your opponent takes, playing on for twice the stakes and owning the cube, or passes and loses the current value. Tap Done to confirm each move; Undo takes back steps until you do.

Rocket Backgammon tips and strategy

• Make points, especially your 5-point and the points in front of your opponent's back checkers. Six points in a row (a prime) can't be jumped.
• Count your blots before you move: a single checker within six pips of an enemy checker can be hit by many rolls. Leave blots where they are hard to hit, or where being hit costs little.
• Get your two back checkers moving early, or anchor them on a point in your opponent's home board so you are never shut out.
• Check the pip counts: when you are well ahead in the race, break contact and run; when you are behind, hold points and wait for a shot.
• Double when you are clearly ahead but not so far ahead that you could win a gammon. Take a double if you win at least about one game in four.
• In match play the score changes everything: play safer and take more freely when you are ahead, and double earlier when you trail.

Backgammon rules explained

The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, in four quarters of six. Each player starts with two checkers on their 24-point, five on their 13-point, three on their 8-point and five on their 6-point, and moves them in opposite directions toward their own home board. Move one checker by each die or one checker by both, as long as every intermediate landing point is open. Doubles give four moves of that number.

Hitting a blot puts it on the bar, and its owner must enter it into the opponent's home board on a later roll before making any other move; if every entry point is blocked, they lose the turn. You must use as much of your roll as the rules allow: both dice if possible, otherwise the larger die. Bearing off begins only when all your checkers are home: a die bears off a checker from the matching point, or from your highest point when the number is higher than every point you occupy.

How the doubling cube works

The doubling cube starts in the middle at 1. At the start of your turn, before rolling, you may double: your opponent either takes, and the game is played for twice the points with the cube on their side, or passes and concedes the game at its current value. Only the player who owns the cube may redouble, so after you take a double you control the next one. Gammons and backgammons multiply the cube value, which is why a double can win or lose a lot of points at once.

A rough guide: double when you would win around 70 percent of the time from the position, and take when you win at least 25 percent. Hard and Insane make these decisions from their own win and gammon estimates and the match score.

Match play and the Crawford rule

A match is a series of games played to a set number of points, here 1, 3, 5 or 7. Each game is worth its cube value, doubled for a gammon and tripled for a backgammon. When one player first gets within one point of winning the match, the next game is the Crawford game, played without the cube, so the trailing player can't simply double every game. After the Crawford game, the trailer may double again, and usually does at once. The match score and Crawford status are always shown above the board.

The four computer levels

Easy moves quickly and often carelessly, leaving blots and taking every double, so beginners can learn and win. Medium plays a sensible pip-count and positional game with a little randomness. Hard looks ahead through all 21 possible rolls of its opponent to choose its move and makes real cube decisions. Insane looks ahead further, weighs primes, anchors, blots and race equity with a stronger evaluation, and adjusts its doubling to the match score. The computer thinks in a background thread so the board never stutters, and Hint shows you its choice.

Play backgammon online with fair dice

Choose Online to play a friend with a link or an 8-letter code, or tap Quick match to play the next person who is ready. No account is needed. Our server rolls every die for online games and checks every move against the rules, so nobody can choose their numbers or make an illegal move. Each match's dice come from a secret random seed whose fingerprint is shown when the match starts and whose value is revealed when it ends, so the game can show you that every roll was fair.

If your connection drops, the game reconnects and carries on where it was; if your opponent leaves for a minute, you can claim the match. Rematch starts a new match with colours swapped, and signed-in players' online wins count on the leaderboard.

Controls, phones and keyboard play

Tap a checker to see its destinations light up, then tap one, or drag the checker there. When your move is complete, tap Done; until then, Undo takes back your last step. Obvious bear-offs and forced moves are played for you. With a keyboard, Space or R rolls, D offers a double, arrow keys move between points, Enter picks up and places a checker, Backspace undoes and Enter on Done confirms. The board has a dark and a light theme and works in portrait and landscape on phones.

Rocket Backgammon FAQ