Three ways to start a game
Play a live opponent
Open the board and join the queue. Matchmaking pairs you by rating, the server deals the dice, and the doubling cube is on the table. Nothing to install and no account needed to take your first seat — guest play is a single tap, and you can attach an email later to keep your rating and history.
Play the AI, at your level
Four distinct opponents, not one bot with a slider: an Easy heuristic for learning the shapes, a Medium one-ply engine, aStrong neural engine that runs on your own device, and anExpert tier backed by server-side rollouts. Strong and Expert will beat most club players. See skill levels and PRfor what those tiers actually mean.
Play checkers instead
The same table, the same fair-play guarantees, a different game —play checkers online against people or a tier-matched engine.
Dice you can check
Every online roll is committed with a secret seed before it is revealed, and the seed is published with the roll, so a roll in an online game you play can be recomputed and checked — by you, your opponent, or a stranger with a script. The app checks each roll you make; the full protocol, and what it does and does not show, is written up onprovably fair dice, and every online game you play keeps a public audit page.
Play is server-authoritative: the server generates the dice and validates every move against the rules of backgammon, so a modified client can neither invent rolls nor sneak an illegal play.
What's on the table
Post-game analysis
Every match can be reviewed move by move: a PR score, equity lost per decision, cube-error tracking, and how lucky each side actually got. It's the fastest way to stop repeating the same mistake.
The full cube
Doubling cube, Crawford, Jacoby, match play and money play — implemented properly, not approximated. Learn the theory in cube strategy.
Voice at the table
Optional voice chat, quick reactions, and canned messages, so an online game feels closer to the board in a café than to a silent app.
Your board, your language
Sixteen board themes and an interface in eleven languages, including full right-to-left layouts.
New to the game?
You don't need to read a rulebook first — start with the guidedLearn lessons, which walk you through moving, hitting, bearing off, and the cube on a real board with a coach talking you through it. From there,the rules, thestrategy guides, and theglossary fill in the rest. Prefer a different flavour of the game? Nackgammon, hypergammon, plakoto, fevga, long nardy and more are all invariants.
Browser now, phone later — same account
Start in the browser at boardgammon.com/play; your rating, history, and purchases follow you to the phone app when you want them. Want an ad-free board, deeper analysis, and every theme? That's Boardgammon Pro.
Prefer a native app? Boardgammon is free on the App Store and Google Play — and the browser version plays the same game today.