Basics
Our free online Backgammon is a game for one player (playing the 'machine'), played on a board of twenty-four narrow triangles called points. Each player (you and the 'machine') has fifteen stones of one color (light or dark) that are placed along the board's 24 points. Points will alternate in color and are grouped into four quadrants of six points each on the online board. Quadrants are referred to as a player's home board and outer board. The online board is divided in half by a center partition called the 'bar'. You cannot drink at this 'bar'.
All points on our online backgammon board are notated by numbers. A player's outermost point is the twenty-four point, which is also her (or his) opponent's one point.
A doubling cube, with the numerals 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 on its faces, is used to keep track of the current stake of the online game.
To start the online game, each player rolls a single die. This determines both the player to go first and the numbers to be played.
If equal numbers come up during the roll, then both players roll again until they roll different numbers. On some online versions of backgammon, equal rolls causes the stake of the game to be automatically doubled. Not on Great Day Games.
The side that throws the higher number moves first according to the number displayed on both dice. After the first roll for the online game, the players throw two dice and alternate turns.
The roll of the dice indicates how many points in the online game, or pips, a player can move her stones. Stones are always moved forward, to a lower-numbered point. The following rules do apply:
During the online game, a stone can only be moved to an open point (one not occupied by two or more opposing stones).
The numbers on the two dice constitute separate moves. For example, if a player rolls five and three, he may move one stone five spaces to an open point on the online game board, and another stone three spaces to an open point, or he may move the one stone a total of eight spaces to an open point on the board, but only if the intermediate point (either three or five spaces from the starting point) is also open. Make sense?
An online player who rolls doubles, plays the numbers shown on the dice twice. A roll of 6 and 6 means that the online player has four sixes to use, and she may move any combination of the stones she feels appropriate to complete this requirement of the game.
An online player must use both numbers of a roll if legally possible (or all four numbers of a double). When only one number can be played, the online player must play that number. If either number can be played during the game, but not both, a player must play the larger one. When either number can't be used during the course of the game, a player loses his turn. In the case of doubles that are rolled, when all four numbers can't be played, a player must play as many numbers as she possibly can.
Hitting and Entering During the Game
In our backgammon, a point occupied by a single stone of either color is called a blot. If an opposing stone lands on any blot, then in our game, the blot is hit and placed on the bar.
Any time an online player has one or more stones on the bar, her first requirement is to enter those stone(s) into the opposing home board. A stone should be entered by moving it to an open point on the game board corresponding to one of the numbers on the rolled dice.
For example, if an online player rolls four and six, he may enter a stone onto either the opponent's four point or six point, so long as the prospective point on the online board is not occupied by two or more of his opponent's stones.
If neither of the points is open on the game board, the player loses her turn. If an online player is able to enter some but not all of his stones, she must enter as many as she can and then forfeit the remainder of her turn.
After the last of an online player's stones has been entered, any unused numbers on all sides of the dice must be played.
Bearing Off During The Game
Once an online player has moved all of his fifteen stones into her home board, she can begin bearing off -as it is known. An online player who bears off is bearing a stone by rolling a number that corresponds to the point on the game board on which the stone resides, and then removing that stone from the online board.
If there is no stone on the point of the game board indicated by the roll, the online player must make a legal move using a stone on a higher-numbered point. If there are no stones on higher-numbered points on the game board, the online player is can remove a stone from the highest point one of her stones sits on. An online player is under no obligation to bear off if she can make an otherwise legal move.
An online player must have all of his active stones in his home board in order to bear off. If a stone is hit during the bear-off process, the online player must bring that stone back to her home board before continuing to bear off.
The Doubling Cube in our Backgammon Game
Backgammon is played for an agreed upon wager (or number of points in this case). During the course of the online game, a player who feels she has an advantage may propose doubling the stakes. She may do this only at the start of her own turn and before she has rolled the dice.
An online player who is offered a double may refuse, in which case she agrees she has lost the game and pays the original wager. Otherwise, she must accept the double and play on for the new higher stakes. An online player who accepts a double becomes the owner of the cube and only she may make the next double.
Subsequent doubles in the same game are called redoubles for our online Backgammon. If an online player refuses a redouble, she must pay the wager that was at stake prior to the redouble -got it? Otherwise, she now becomes the new owner of the cube and the online game continues at 2x the previous stakes. Fpr our free online backgammon, edoubles can increase up to 64 times the original wager.
Gammons and Backgammons for our Online Backgammon
At the end of the online game, if the losing onlinr player has borne off at least one stone, dhe loses only the value showing on the doubling cube (the original wager or one point if there have been no doubles) of our game. However, if the loser has not borne off, as they say, any of her stones, she is gammoned and loses twice the value of her doubling cube. Or, worse, if the loser has not borne off any of her stones and still has a stone on the bar of the game board or in the winner's home board, she is backgammoned and loses three times the value of the doubling cube for the game.
Beavering -it's a Backgammon term, too
This rule allows an online player that is doubled to immediately redouble (beaver) while retaining possession of the cube. The original doubler has the option of accepting or refusing as with a normal double for the game.
In order to perform this operation during backgammon, 'Beavering' must be turned on when creating or accepting table options prior to online game play. Got it? Really? GREAT!
