Backgammon
The oldest race there is.
Five thousand years old and still the best argument for two dice. Both players race fifteen checkers around the board in opposite directions and off the far end; land alone on a point and you can be hit and sent back to the bar. Luck deals the roll, and the whole game is what you do with it.
This one is a web extra — it isn't in the app. The PartyAt app itself ships 17 party games.
Play backgammon online free — two players, one device
Backgammon, playable right here. Two players share one device: roll, tap a point to lift a checker, then tap where it lands. Standard rules — hitting a lone checker sends it to the bar, doubles are played four times, and you bear off once all fifteen checkers are home. No doubling cube, no match play, just one game. Free, no sign-up, and it works offline.
You must use as many dice as the position allows, and when only one of the two can be played it has to be the larger — so a move that would waste a die is never offered. There is no doubling cube and no gammon scoring: one game, one winner.
Backgammon is a web extra — the PartyAt app is a collection of party games for one phone, from a bomb-passing game to bingo, dice and roulette, for up to a hundred players.
How to play — rules
- Each player rolls one die to decide who starts; the higher roll goes first and plays those two numbers. Roll two dice on every turn after that.
- Move one checker for each die — the two numbers separately, or both with the same checker. A point is closed to you only when the opponent has two or more checkers on it.
- Land on a point holding exactly one enemy checker and it goes to the bar. A checker on the bar must come back in on the opponent's home board before that player may move anything else.
- Doubles are played four times, not two — a 4-4 is four moves of four.
- Once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you start bearing off, taking them off the board with matching rolls.
How to win
The first player to bear all fifteen checkers off the board wins. This is a single game with no doubling cube and no gammon or backgammon bonus, so one game is worth exactly one win.
Tips & strategy
- Two checkers on a point make it safe and shut the door on your opponent. Six such points in a row is a prime, and nothing gets past it.
- Leaving a lone checker is not automatically a mistake — work out how many of the thirty-six possible rolls actually hit it, and weigh that against what the safe move costs you.
FAQ
- Do I need to install anything, or pay?
- No. The board on this page runs in the browser, free, with no sign-up, and both players share one phone rather than joining an online table.
- Is the doubling cube included?
- No, and neither is match play or gammon scoring. This is one plain game: move, hit, re-enter, bear off, and whoever gets all fifteen checkers off first wins. The cube is where most of backgammon's tournament strategy lives, but it only means anything across a match played to a target score, which is a different thing from a single game on a shared phone.
- Why can I sometimes only play one of the two dice?
- Because the position blocks the other one — and the rules say you have to use as many dice as you legally can. If only one of the two is playable it must be the larger, and if playing one number would strand the other, that move is illegal. On this board those rules are enforced by what is tappable: a move that wastes a die simply is not offered.
- Is this the short game or the long one?
- The short game — backgammon proper, the one with hitting and the bar. Long nardy (played across much of the Russian-speaking world, and often just called нарды) starts from a different setup, has no hitting at all, and is a different game despite sharing a board and dice.
Where it shines
Pass one phone around and play it in moments like these.
- Just the two of youHead-to-head while you wait.
- Anywhere, offlineNo wifi, no signal? No problem.
