Yahoo Backgammon Review

How to Play Backgammon

The object of Backgammon is to get all fifteen of your checkers off the board by moving them all into your inner quadrant and then removing them. The board setup places each player’s checkers across the four quadrants of the board, so each player starts with two checkers already in their inner quadrant, five checkers in their opponents inner quadrant, and the remaining spread across the other two. The setup may sound a bit confusing, but since Yahoo automatically does it, you don’t have to worry about remembering how many checkers go where.

To start, each player rolls a die, with the highest roll moving first. Each turn, you first click “roll” to roll the dice. You can then move your checkers in several ways. You can move one checker the number shown on one of the two die and then move another checker (or the same checker) the number shown on the other die. You must always move your checkers towards your inner quadrant, never backwards, and you can’t move to any point that has two or more of your opponent’s checkers on it. If you land on a point that has one of your opponent’s checkers on it, that checker is bumped (see below for more information).

Doubles

If you roll doubles, you get to move twice the number of what you rolled. For example, if you roll double fours, you get to move a total of sixteen spaces! Just like a regular roll, you can divide up the moves between checkers, moving either one checker 16 spaces, four checkers four spaces each, or any combination.

Bumping

If you or your opponent moves a checker onto a point occupied by one checker of the opposite color, that checker is bumped and put on the bar in the middle of the board. On the next turn, that player must move the checker off the bar and onto the board starting at their opponent’s inner quadrant. If a player rolls a 2 and a 3, for example, they must put the checker on the bar on either point 2 or 3 of their opponent’s inner quadrant. If their opponent has more than two checkers on both of these points, they must skip their turn and try to get the checker off the bar on the next turn. Any number of checkers can get bumped onto the bar, which makes this a great strategy to keep the other player busy while you move all of your checkers to your inner quadrant.

Winning

To win, you must get all of your checkers to your inner quadrant and then begin moving them off the board. This is the only time you don’t have to move a checker the full number on the die. If you have only one checker left on the board and it’s in row 2, it doesn’t matter if you roll a 6, you can still move that checker off the board.

Backgammon Gameplay

Yahoo! Backgammon recreates the traditional board game perfectly and is a lot of fun for players familiar with it. For new players, learning all the tricks and ways to win may take a few games, but the game is pretty easy to pick up. The graphics, of course, are very basic, but they don’t need to be anything more. There is no sound or sound effects.

The Bottom Line

Online players who enjoy Backgammon or want to learn a new game will enjoy Yahoo’s online version. One really nice point is that players don’t have to worry about setting up the game, so they don’t have to memorize where checkers go. Players who are especially good at the game can even enter a Backgammon tournament to show off their skills.