Last updated 19 October 2026
Backgammon is a race for two players. Each of you moves 15 checkers around the board by the roll of two dice, and the first to bring every checker home and bear it off wins. This page sets out the rules exactly as the app plays them. Konkan's own rules are at konkan.pro/gamerules.
The board has 24 narrow triangles, called points, in four quarters of six. Each player has 15 checkers. You count the points from your own side: your home board is your points 1 to 6, and your opponent's home board is your points 19 to 24. The bar runs down the middle and divides the board in two.
You start with 2 checkers on your 24-point, 5 on your 13-point, 3 on your 8-point and 5 on your 6-point. Your opponent starts the same way, counted from their side.
The app always shows the board from your side, with your home board at the bottom right. Your checkers travel counter-clockwise: along the top from right to left, then along the bottom from left to right into your home board. Your opponent's travel the opposite way, towards their home board at the top right.
Under each player the app shows their pip count — the total number of points their checkers still have to travel to bear off. A checker on the bar counts 25.
At the start of every game, each player rolls one die. The higher die moves first, and plays the two numbers just rolled — their own and their opponent's — as their opening move. If the two dice match, both are rolled again. The server rolls the opening for both of you; you do not tap anything.
After the opening move, players take turns: roll two dice, move, and pass the turn.
Each number rolled moves one checker that many points. You can move one checker by both numbers, one after the other, or two different checkers. A checker may land on:
It can never land on a point holding two or more of your opponent's checkers. Each number of a two-number move must land legally on its own.
Rolling a double — two 4s, say — gives you that number four times.
One allowance the app makes: if a shorter way of playing reaches exactly the same position as using every die — most often bearing a checker off at once with a single number — it is accepted.
If you cannot move at all, your turn passes. If the roll leaves only one possible outcome, the app plays it for you.
The checkers you can move glow green; drag one onto a lit point. You can take a move back with UNDO until you tap DONE, and DONE is accepted only once you have played every number the rules require.
A single checker on a point is called a blot. Land on your opponent's blot and you hit it: it goes to the bar, and the point becomes yours.
A player with a checker on the bar must bring it back in before moving anything else. It enters your opponent's home board on the point that matches a die: a 1 enters on your 24-point, a 6 on your 19-point. It can enter on any point it could land on (section 3). If neither number can enter, you cannot move and the turn passes; with two or more checkers on the bar, every one must enter before any other checker moves.
Once all your remaining checkers are in your home board, with none on the bar, you may start taking them off the board — bearing off.
If one of your checkers is hit while you are bearing off, it must re-enter and come all the way back to your home board before you can bear off again.
The first player to bear off all 15 checkers wins the game. How much it is worth depends on how far behind the loser is:
| Win | When | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Single | The loser has borne off at least one checker | 1 |
| Gammon | The loser has borne off none | 2 |
| Backgammon | The loser has borne off none and still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board | 3 |
On a match to 1 the points are multiplied by the doubling cube (section 8).
Every table plays a match. The host chooses a match to 1, 3, 5 or 7 points, and the first player to reach that score wins the match. A match to 1 is a single game.
When a game ends and the match is not over, the next game is dealt a few seconds later, from the starting position, with a fresh opening roll (section 2). Points beyond the match length do not carry over.
The cube starts in the middle at 1. At the start of your turn, before you roll, you may offer a double if the cube is in the middle or on your side. (The opening move is played with the opening roll, so it cannot be doubled.) Your opponent has their own turn clock to answer:
A double left unanswered when the clock runs out counts as a Forfeit.
The cube multiplies the bet as well as the points: when a double is taken, each player adds what their stake was before, so the stake doubles (section 11). A double can be offered only when both players have the diamonds to cover the raise. If the taker turns out to be short, the Take counts as a Forfeit — unless the doubler left the match first — walked out, or stayed away past their 60 seconds — in which case the doubler forfeits and the taker wins; if the doubler is short, the double is withdrawn.
Resign game, in the table's Menu, gives the current game to your opponent as a single — 1 point, times the cube on a match to 1. If your opponent has already borne off all 15 checkers, it counts as the win the board already shows, gammon or backgammon included. On a match to 1 that ends the match; in a longer match the next game follows, unless the points it gives your opponent win the match.
Leave match forfeits the whole match: your opponent wins it and is paid the pot. Leaving before the match is dealt costs nothing. No bot ever takes over a Backgammon seat.
You have 45 seconds for your whole turn — rolling and moving, or answering a double — plus 1.5 seconds of grace. When the time runs out, the server plays the turn for you: it rolls if you had not, then makes the first legal moves it finds and ends the turn.
While it is your clock you can spend 10 diamonds for +10 seconds, up to twice a game.
You roll your own dice by default: tap ROLL. Tick AUTO ROLL beside the board once the match has started and the dice roll for you — after a 2.5-second pause whenever you could double first (a match to 1, with the cube in the middle or on your side), and almost at once otherwise. The app remembers your choice.
You have 60 seconds to come back. Meanwhile your clock keeps running and plays your turns when it runs out, so your opponent is never stuck. If you are not back after 60 seconds, you forfeit the match and your opponent is paid the pot. If your opponent is also disconnected when your 60 seconds run out, the table waits out the rest of their 60 seconds: if they come back in time, you forfeit; if they do not, the table closes and both stakes are returned.
Every Backgammon table is played for diamonds. The host sets the bet: 100 to 2,000 diamonds per player, in steps of 100. There is no table fee. Both players' bets are taken when the match is dealt; if either player cannot cover the bet at that moment, the table closes and nothing is taken.
| Example: a final stake of 1,000 each | Diamonds |
|---|---|
| The pot (both stakes) | 2,000 |
| House fee, each side | 80 |
| Paid to the winner | 1,840 |
If the table closes before the match is decided, nobody wins or loses: every stake goes back to the player who put it up, including anything added by the doubling cube, and the house takes nothing. Diamonds spent on time boosts are not part of the stake and are not returned.
Every roll is made on our server, never on a phone, from one 128-bit random seed per match. Before the first roll, the server commits to that seed by publishing its fingerprint — a one-way SHA-256 hash that reveals nothing about the rolls to come; the beginning of it is shown in the table's Menu. When a match is played to its end, the seed itself is stored with the match record, and we will send it to either player on request, together with how the rolls are derived from it, so you can check it against the fingerprint and confirm that every roll was decided before the first move was made.
The dice know nothing about who you are — not your balance, your membership or your history.
The host can mark a table rated. Rated matches earn Backgammon trophies: 10 for every point you score — 10 for a game won as a single, 20 for a gammon, 30 for a backgammon — and the match winner adds 10 × the match length — unless every game they won ended with the other player resigning, which earns no match-win trophies. The doubling cube never multiplies trophies, and a match won because the other player left or was away too long earns the winner no trophies. A double the taker cannot cover is a drop even if the taker then leaves: the doubler wins that game by play and earns its trophies.
Every wagered match, rated or not, counts toward the Backgammon leagues, which rank the diamonds you win. Backgammon's boards and leagues are its own, separate from Konkan's. The prizes and the full rules are in section 11 of the competition rules: konkan.pro/competition.
More questions — rematches, customising your board and dice, voice chat — are answered in the FAQ.