Backgammon Variants You Can Play Online

Standard backgammon is only one member of a large family of race games played with two dice and fifteen checkers per side. Many online servers and apps offer some of its relatives as well. They use the same board, but small changes to the starting position or to the hitting rules make them feel like different games. This page gives the short rules of the variants you are most likely to meet and explains how each one differs from the standard rules.

Variants close to standard backgammon

Nackgammon

Nackgammon uses the normal rules with a different starting position: two checkers on the 24-point, two on the 23-point, four on the 13-point, three on the 8-point and four on the 6-point. With four back checkers instead of two, games tend to be longer and more complex, with more back games and holding games. Players who know standard backgammon can switch immediately, but some standard opening moves no longer fit.

Hypergammon

Hypergammon is played with only three checkers per side, placed on the 24-, 23- and 22-points. All other rules, including hitting, the bar and bearing off, are standard. Games are quick and very tactical. Because the number of positions is small, computers have solved it, which makes it a good playground for studying cube decisions.

Acey-deucy

In acey-deucy all checkers start off the board and enter through the opponent's home board, as if coming in from the bar. Players may move entered checkers before all fifteen are on the board. The special roll is 1-2, the acey-deucy: the player plays the 1 and the 2, then chooses any doubles to play, then rolls again. House rules vary, so check the settings before starting.

Greek tavli: three games in one match

In Greece the board is called tavli, and a match traditionally alternates three games: portes, plakoto and fevga. Points from each game add up to a single match score.

Portes

Portes is very close to standard backgammon: same setup, same movement, hitting and bar. The main differences are that a backgammon counts only as a gammon, worth two points, and the doubling cube is not normally used.

Plakoto

In plakoto each player starts with all fifteen checkers on his own 24-point and there is no hitting. Instead, landing on a single opposing checker pins it: the pinned checker cannot move until the pinning checker leaves. Pinning the opponent's last checker on its starting point is so strong that it usually wins the game outright.

Fevga

In fevga both players start with all checkers in one corner, on opposite sides, and move in the same direction around the board. There is no hitting and no pinning: a single checker already holds a point against the opponent. The game is about building blocks in front of the opposing checkers without trapping yourself.

Long nardy

Long nardy is the main form of the game in Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Each side places all fifteen checkers on one starting point, called the head, in opposite corners. Both players move counterclockwise in the same direction. There is no hitting, and one checker is enough to block a point. Only one checker may leave the head per turn, with an exception for certain doubles on the first roll. A player may not build a block of six points in a row unless at least one opposing checker is already ahead of it. Winning before the opponent has borne off any checker is called mars and is worth two points. There is no doubling cube.

Tavla

Tavla is the Turkish name for backgammon. The usual game uses the standard setup and the standard hitting rules, so a backgammon player can sit down and play at once. In common practice the cube is not used, a gammon (mars) counts double, and matches are played to a fixed number of points.

How the variants compare

If you are new to the family, learn standard backgammon first. Its ideas about safety, blocking and racing carry over to every game on this list.