01 The board and the starting position

The board has 24 narrow triangles called points, in four quadrants of six. Each player has a home board (points 1–6, from their own perspective) and an outer board (7–12). You move your checkers from the 24-point toward your 1-point — your opponent moves theirs the opposite way, so you pass each other head-on.

Every game starts from the same position. From your point of view: two checkers on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point, and five on your 6-point. Your opponent’s fifteen checkers mirror yours exactly.

02 How a turn works

On your turn you roll two dice. Each die is a separate move: advance one checker by the pips on one die and another checker by the pips on the other, always toward your home board. You can move the same checker twice — once for each die — as long as the in-between point is legal to land on. Doubles are played four times: roll 5-5 and you make four moves of five.

You may land a checker on a point only if it is:

• Empty, or
• Yours (any number of your own checkers), or
• held by exactly one opposing checker — a blot, which you hit (step 3).

A point with two or more enemy checkers is closed to you. You must use both dice if there is any legal way to; if only one number can be played, you must play it; if neither can, you forfeit the turn.

03 Hitting and the bar

Land on a point holding a single enemy checker and you hit it: that checker is picked up and placed on the bar, the ridge dividing the board.

A player with a checker on the bar can do nothing else until it re-enters. It comes back in the opponent’s home board, on the point matching one of your dice — a 3 enters on the opponent’s 3-point. If both matching points are closed, the whole turn is lost. Getting hit late can cost you the race entirely, because that checker has to travel the full length of the board again.

04 Bearing off

Once all fifteen of your checkers are inside your home board (points 1–6), you start taking them off. A die of N removes a checker from your N-point.

• If your N-point is empty but you have checkers on higher points, you must make a legal move inside the home board instead.
• If there is no checker on N or any higher point, a die of N bears off from your highest occupied point.
• If you are hit while bearing off, that checker goes to the bar and must come all the way around and back into your home board before you can bear off again.

The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins the game.

05 Strategy: the first principles

Build points, not stacks

A point you hold with two or more checkers is a wall the opponent can’t land on. Points in your home board and your bar point (your 7) are worth the most — a run of them forms a prime that traps enemy checkers behind it. Spreading checkers to make new points beats piling six onto your 6-point, which wastes their motion.

Respect direct shots

Any blot within 1–6 pips of an enemy checker can be hit with a single die. Leaving one is sometimes right — to make a key point, or when being sent back barely hurts you — but never leave a blot you can’t afford to lose.

Race or hold, not both

Add up how far each side has to travel (the pip count). If you’re clearly ahead, simplify: disengage and run for home. If you’re behind, don’t race a losing race — keep an anchor (a made point in the opponent’s home board, ideally their 20 or 21) and wait for a shot to hit and turn the game.

Hit hard when your board is strong

Hitting buys tempo — the opponent spends a turn re-entering instead of developing. Hitting deep in your home board while you already hold several home points is often decisive: they may dance on the bar for turns while you build.

Fair by design

Three commitments shape every part of the platform:

What’s here now

Backgammon — one-on-one Casual and Ranked matchmaking, server-rolled dice, a live board, rankings, levels and achievements. Free to play.

What’s coming

• More games. Checkers, Chess and others on the same fair-play engine and the same account.
• Deeper competition. Seasonal ranked play, limited-time events, and scheduled tournaments.
• A finished platform. TableClash is in open beta; features, data and rankings may still change as it develops.

No real-money play

TableClash is a skill-based competitive gaming platform, not a gambling service. In-game items and progression — Chips, Action Points, VP, XP — have no real-world monetary value. They cannot be bought with real money, and cannot be sold, transferred, exchanged, redeemed, or cashed out for money, cryptocurrency, or prizes.

Contact

Questions, bug reports, or account help: [email protected]. See also the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.