Double Nines

Pull up a chair. Double Nines is a backgammon table in the browser, free to play, with no ads and no account to make.

You sit down as Anna. A click on the portrait brings in Paul, or a plain player if you would rather not put a face on the game. Across the table is the Dragon. Jade plays a gentle game, Ember plays the way a club night feels, and Drake looks further ahead. You can change that mind in the middle of a game.

The game is at playd9.com. This page is for reading, and for keeping. If you want to find it again, the address is playd9.com/wiki/index.html.

If the board is new to you, there is a quieter page for that. How to play is ordinary backgammon, told slowly, and it sits you down at this table when you are ready.

Checkers with a life of their own

The pieces are part of the pleasure. One set is painted with flowers. Another is the familiar disc. There are birds, a jack-o'-lantern, a retro Halloween set, and a table full of dogs. The little disc under a portrait swaps the set whenever you like, even after the first roll. Double-click a checker and it tells you a short story about itself.

Five checkers: a flower, a plain disc, a bird, a jack-o'-lantern, and a dog.
Flowers, Classic, Birds, Halloween, and Dogs. A retro Halloween set is on the table too.

A room you can change

The same game can feel like a different evening. The table can be quiet marble, a cyberpunk cafe, a horror poster, Halloween night, or open space. The pictures along the bottom of the board change the room while you play, so you do not have to start over to see it.

A hop you can take back

If a hop was the wrong one and the dice are still sitting there, you can take that hop back. One game can be saved on this device, so closing the page does not have to mean losing the position. If the game is already lost, you may resign.

Sometimes only one of the two numbers can be played. The table tells you which one. The dice roll for you until you want a quiet moment. Turn that off when you want to double before the roll.

A puzzle for the day

Each day the table offers one real position and one roll. There is more than one legal way to play it. Ask for a hint, or look at the suggested line, and then decide. After you play, a coach tells you whether you found that line. You can play the position out from there if you want to see where it goes.

Championship games, one hop at a time

Historical Matches are public finals from the Monte Carlo world championship. They were played to 25 points, with the doubling cube. Pick a final, then one game or the whole match. You can pause, step backward, and step forward. Doubles, takes, and drops move the cube the way they did at the table. The notation sits beside the board, and nobody is grading you. You are watching a game that already happened, with the players' names under the portraits.

Three short classic plays are there too: an opening 6-1, an opening 6-6, and a blot being hit. Five more public games are written up as Match notes. They are not stepped through. The card tells you what was published, and where that account and the rules do not quite agree.

A friend at the same screen

Someone can sit down beside you. Each of you moves only on your own turn. A controller can take a seat, and the mouse still works for the person whose turn it is.

Acey-Deucey

There is a second game on this table. American Acey-Deucey is the form long played in the Navy and the Marines. All fifteen checkers start off the board and come on by the dice. Roll 1-2 and you may name doubles, then take a bonus roll.

Money, a match, and the cube

A money game is one game between friends. A match plays on to a length you choose. The doubling cube is part of both. You can offer a double before you roll, and you can take or drop when one is offered to you. A gammon, and a backgammon, change what that game is worth.

Who made it

Double Nines was made by CastleofAargh. Copyright 2026. It is free for personal, non-commercial play. You may link to the site. The game is not licensed for resale, or for use as the base of another game. Software is provided as-is, without warranty.

The game is at playd9.com.