Hi I'm dozens and this is a backgammon website.
Backgammon is the best random strategy racing game that is kind of like checkers with dice and gambling.
Backgammon is the D&D of strategy board games. You can strategize and plan ahead all you want, but there's always some uncertainty about the outcome because of the fickle whimsy of the dice.
I am still really new at playing but I am trying to get better.
Check out the News section to see what's new!
colophon: [noun] an inscription at the end of a book or manuscript usually with facts about its production.
This site is built on john-doe by cadars (https://github.com/cadars/john-doe), which is really neat (to me at least) because it is a single HTML file with absolutely no javascript included. All of the "routing" and the image gallery lightboxes are all done with pure CSS. How cool is that? Be sure to peep the source code 👀
Counting pips is a way to determine the current state of your game. That is, to know who's ahead, and by much.
All it is is counting up how many spaces aways you are from bearing all your pieces off. This is the number that you have to roll on your dice (the number of "pips" that you need) in order to bear off.
I didn't used to care that much about counting pips, but the backgammon app I use on my phone shows each player's pip count, and I have come around to considering it useful, especially when used in conjunction with the doubling cube. For example, I might confidently accept a double if my pip count is much lower than my opponents.
What I don't currently have in my practice is a way to intuitively know the pip count when playing a physical game.
Here's an observation I made.
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If you count up the pips of each point in your starting position, you get, anti-clockwise from the top right, 48, 65, 24, and 30.
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| 65 | | 48 |
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| 24 | | 30 |
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So if you play perfectly, you need 167 pips to bear off. (If you get hit, your pip count will go up again when you enter from the bar.)
It's possible then to keep track of your and your opponent's pip count by subtracting rolls from 167 as you go.
I've kind of wanted to use a notebook and pen while playing anyway to keep track of moves so I can study and reflect on games later. Like they did on Queen's Gambit when playing chess. It would also allow me to keep a running pip count as well.
Here's what some words mean
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I caught my dad playing backgammon on his phone, so I challenged him to a five point match, and he accepted!
The first two games went pretty fast, just racing games, and the score was 1 - 1.
The third game, I doubled him and he accepted, and I was sure he was going to win. In fact, at the end, he would have won on his next turn unless I rolled double sixes. And then, sure enough, boxcars. I’m up 3 - 1. He almost flipped the table!
We took a break after 3 games, and then came back. I doubled early to set the stakes. We both built some strong primes, and he was racing. I gave up my back game probably too soon, but had a lot of lucky rolls at the end and bore off just before he did to clinch the win.
He kept rolling 1 and 2 the whole match, and we joked that that was his “signature move”. He demanded he get to use my dice next time.
My old backgammon board has been getting some more use lately! It has become customary to play a five point match on Sundays over coffee and breakfast. A nice tradition! I lose almost every match!
Also added a section on pip counting
Added some additional rules to Bearing Off because at some point a while back I realized I didn't have a firm grasp on how to do it myself.
Finally, added a colophon because i'm hipster like that.
Site updates! Added a Glossary page. Made some minor tweaks and updates to Rules.
Got to watch the end of nihilazo and acdw play today. It was a THRILLA! nihilazo was ahead and I was sure about to take the win, but acdw played a strong back game and blocked off almost his entire inner board, so he made an impressive comeback and had nihilazo on the ropes for a minute there before some good rolls and some smart moves allowed nihilazo to regain his edge. It was really down to the last couple rolls, but once acdw had to give up his defense, there was no way he could win the race, and he resigned, giving nihilazo 4 points on a single game (doubled twice), winning the 3-point match. Nail biter! Rollercoaster! Exciting!
Guess what I played like one game of internet backgammon with my friends and it reminded me how much I like the game that I got obsessed and made a whole website about it and now you're reading wtf how crazy is that!
Okay listen up here's how to play backgammon.
Contents:
There 2 dozen points on the board. They are numbered 1 to 24, clockwise from the bottom right to the top right. It looks like this.
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The bottom right quadrant is your "inner board". The bottom left quadrant is your "outter board". The top left and right quadrants are not yours.
To set up the board, put 2, 5, 3, and 5 checkers on points 24, 13, 8, and 6.
I don't know where, how, or when it was decided that this is the correct way to set up your checkers. It seems kind of arbitrary. But that's just the way it is, so get used to it.
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Your opponent will set up their places in the same way, from their perspective.
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| x o | | o x |
| x o | | o x |
| x o | | o |
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| o | | x |
| o | | x |
| o x | | x |
| o x | | x o |
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Your job is move your checkers anti-clockwise around and off the board, from the top right to the bottom right, before your opponent can bear their checkers off.
The way you do this is rolling two 6 sided dice. You can move one piece twice, or two pieces once.
For example, if I roll a 3 and a 1, I could move one checker from point 8 three spaces, and one checker from point 6 one space:
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| x o | | o x |
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| o | | x |
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| o x | | x x o |
| o x | | x x o |
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3-1: 8/5 6/5
You cannot end your turn on a point occupied by more than one of your opponent's checkers.
If your opponent has a single checker on a point, it is called a blot, and if you land one of your checkers on it, you knock it off the board and send it to the bar! Not as enjoyable a fate as you might think. It is not a happy bar.
You can't make any moves until all of your pieces are off the bar and back on the board.
Your piece must re-enter the board from your point 24, so that it must make an entire circuit of the board before bearing off.
The first player to bear all their pieces off wins.
You cannot start bearing pieces off until all 15 of your pieces are all in your inner board. i.e., they are all occupying points 1 - 6.
Here are the rules for bearing off:
First bear off checkers from the points shown on the dice.
If there are no checkers on the point rolled, you must make a legal move from a higher point.
If there are no checkers on the point rolled or on a higher point, you must bear off from the highest point that still has checkers.
The doubling cube is a new addition to the game, added in the 1920s to speed up play.
What it is: a six-sided die with the numbers labeled 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64.
What it does:
In single match play: Assuming you are playing a game for stakes, anybody may double the stakes by turning the cube. If a player refuses the offer, they resign and the game ends.
When playing to a set point (say, playing to 10 points), the doubling cube works the same way, and it speeds up play by potentially multiplying the amount of points each game is worth so that you get to the end of the game more quickly.
If you have offered the cube to your opponent and they have accepted it, then they "own" the cube, and they can in turn offer you a double if they want to.
If you win, you get one point.
If you win while your opponent still has checkers in your outer board (points 7 - 12) that is a gammon and you get 2 points.
If you win while your opponent still has checkers in your inner board (points 1 - 6) that is a backgammon and you get 3 points.
If you successfully used the doubling cube, multiply the number of points you got by the amount on the cube.
There. Now you know how to play backgammon. You're welcome.
Here are some backgammon pictures, okay?
Tips for how to play good.
Word of caution: I don't know how to play that good. These are merely some strategies that I try to keep in mind while playing.
Mario Kart: It's a race! If you're ahead in the race, keep sprinting. If you're behind in the race, try to lay some traps for your opponent.
Backgame: it's kind of low stakes to split up your two checkers on 24 and leave them in your opponent's inner board. If you hit blots, they have very far to go. If they hit you, you haven't lost any covered ground. Don't spent too much time back there though!
Primes: building a wall of points will make it hard for your opponent to proceed.
Flatten the curve: better to have two points of three than one of four and one of two
Opening: build your 5 prime or play 24 and 13
Fibs is not lies.
Fibs is the First Internet Backgammon Server. It's kind of wild because I think it's running on some kind of MUD software because of how you can say things and look at people and stuff.
Contents:
There are clients for it, but I haven't tried any, because I think it's most convenient to just use rlwrap and telnet and jack into it like rlwrap telnet fibs.com 4321.
Then you'll log in as guest, make a user name and password, and that's it! Now you can play!
It is annoyingly noisy when you first log in, so you'll want to toggle some settings:
toggle notify: turn off login/logout messagestoggle report: don't message when matches start/finishtoggle silent: don't listen to shoutsNow you can invite a friend (or stranger) to play with invite dozens 1 for a one point match with dozens.
When I see your invitation, I'll join with join yourname.
When the game starts, autoroll will be on, so you'll roll automatically. And then you'll move with m for as many moves as you want. e.g. if I roll a 3 and a 1, and want to move one checker 3 moves from point 8 and one checker one move from point 6, then I'd enter m 8 5 6 5. I wish you could instead enter m 8 3 6 1 because that seems more intuitive and easy to me, but you can't, so oh well.
fibs uses a board layout I've never seen before, and it is very disorienting at first.
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So you're racing from 1 to 24, from the top left to the bottom left. They reversed the checkers and also the numbering. Everything is totally backwards!
UPDATE: so turns out the board is only flipped like this if you are Xs. That is, if you go second. If you go first, you play Os, and the board is oriented correctly. That makes the numbering make sense I think: the point numbers are the same for both sides. But I still don't know why the board should be mirrored like this for Xs...
After a game, you can review the game with oldmoves <name>. This shows you all the game moves, which you can download and save for later to review them if you want.
Lies are not fibs.
Nor are they truths.
I have never won a gammon.
I have never won a game after using the doubling cube.
"Back gam, on" refers to something that is "on" the "back" of one's "gam", or on the back of one's leg. In the old west, outlaw backgammon players would keep a stiletto knife strapped to the back of their leg in case they caught somebody cheating at backgammon, or in case they themself were accused of cheating and they had to defend their honor.
The name "backgammon" is actually a misspelling of "Back Ganon". The game prophesizes the return of Ganondorf who seeks to recreate the Triforce and rule over all of Hyrule.
The name "backgammon" is a misspelling of "Back, Game on!" which was a common thing to shout back when cavemen had to often suddenly abandon a game when a mastodon or saber-toothed sloth interrupted them. Backgammon long after continued to enjoy its status as a correspondence game, able to be enjoyed over long periods of time, over long distances.
These are truths about my backgammon playing career that I hope will one day be lies.
I have never won a backgammon.
I have never accepted a double.
I have never doubled a double.
I have never played a 10 point match.
I have never won a 10 point match.
Games I played
2020-12-13-nihilazo Win. 2 points on a single-point match. Had me on the ropes in the middle, left playing a desperate backgame. But then I managed to bring it back around with the help of some good rolls.
2020-12-11-nihilazo Win. 4 points on a single-point match. consecutive double 5s and 6s at the end clinched the gammon.
Learn more about backgammon
Fibs: Play telnet backgammon
bkgm: The second best backgammon site on the whole internet
dailygammon: Correspondence/play by post games
openlibrary: lots of old backgammon books on openlibrary, including Backgammon by Walter B. Gibson, the cover of which inspired the styling of this site. One thing you can learn from the number of different books listed here is that backgammon was really popular in the 60s and 70s.
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