How to play

Fifteen checkers, two dice, and a direction. That is enough to begin. The rest can wait until a game is already going.

This is ordinary backgammon, the kind you might learn across a kitchen table. If you already play, the page about this table is the one you want. If the board is new, stay here. The game itself is at playd9.com. If you want to find this page again, the address is playd9.com/wiki/how-to-play.html.

Which way you move

You have fifteen checkers. So does the person across from you. The dice say how far a checker may travel, and you move them toward your own home, the six points beside your tray.

Leave the point numbers on. While it is your turn, your 1 is the point next to your tray, and your 24 is the far corner. You walk from 24 down toward 1. When the turn changes, the numbers turn with it, so each player is always reading toward their own home. That is the whole trick of the direction. Keep the numbers on until it feels ordinary. It will.

A blot, and a point that is closed

One checker sitting alone is called a blot. A blot can be hit. Two or more of your checkers on the same point are safe, and the other player cannot land there.

The same is true the other way around. A point with two or more of their checkers is closed to you. You cannot land on it. Play a different checker, or the other number on the dice. When the board feels crowded, that one fact does most of the work: if they already have a pair there, leave that point alone.

The two dice

Each die is its own number. A roll of 6 and 1 is a move of 6 and a move of 1. They do not have to travel as a pair, and you may play either number first. You try to play both, when the board allows it. When both dice show the same number, you have four moves of that number, and you play as many as the board allows.

Click one of your checkers, then the place it can land. In Double Nines, if that first hop was the wrong one and the dice are still sitting there, you can take the hop back and try the other number first.

Sometimes only one of the two numbers has a home. If the larger number can be played, that is the one you play. The table will tell you which one.

A hit, and the bar

Land on the other player's blot and you send that checker to the bar, the rail down the middle of the board. It has to come back in before that player can move anything else.

Coming back in means entering on the six points next to their tray, their home. The die you use has to land on a point they have not closed. If they have left a blot there, you may hit it on the way in. Until that checker is back on a point, the rest of yours stay where they are.

Taking checkers off

Bearing off is how a game ends. It waits until every checker you still have is in your home, those six points beside your tray. Then a die can take one off.

A number that matches a point bears the checker on that point off. A larger number can bear off your farthest checker, once nothing of yours sits farther from the tray. The first player to bear off all fifteen wins.

When it feels like too much

Open the daily puzzle. It is one real position and one roll, the sort of question a club player would sit with, and there is a hint if you want it, or the suggested line if you would rather see the whole idea. You can play the position out afterward.

While you are in there, remember two things. A point with two or more of their checkers is closed. And your numbers, on your turn, run from 24 down toward 1. Leave the point numbers on.

When you want a whole game, Jade is a gentle opponent. Ember plays the way a club night feels. Drake looks further ahead, for the evening you are curious how far the table will go. You can change that mind while the game is going.

The cube, when you are ready

You do not need the cube on your first game. It is the die that raises what the game is worth. Before you roll, you may offer a double. The other player can take, and the stake doubles, or drop, and the game ends at the stake it already had.

A money game is a single game. A match plays on to a length you choose. The dice roll for you until you want a quiet moment. Turn that off when you want to double before they go.

A gammon is a larger win, when the other player has not borne a single checker off. A backgammon is larger still, when they still have a checker on the bar or in your home. Both can wait. A plain win is a fine first evening.

The game is at playd9.com. The page about this table is where the checkers, the room, and the championship games live.