Backgammon

Backgammon is the oldest race there is, laid out here on a folding board in dark walnut with brass hinges, cream and burgundy felt points and a full set of ivory and ebony checkers. Roll the dice, move two checkers or one checker twice, and run your fifteen men round to your home board and off the far edge. Doubles give you four moves instead of two, and the dice have to be used if there is any legal way to use them.

The board fights back. A point with two or more enemy checkers is shut to you; a point with a single one is a blot, and landing on it knocks that checker onto the bar, where it has to enter again from the top before its owner may move anything else. Six points in a row is a prime nothing gets past. Once every checker is home you start bearing off, taking men from the exact number rolled and, when nothing sits further out, from a lower point with a higher die. Tap a checker to see where it can go, drag it if you prefer, undo anything inside your own turn, and ask for a hint when the roll is awkward.

Play a friend on the same device, or take on the computer at Easy, Normal or Sharp. Easy rolls and shrugs, Normal counts pips and hates leaving blots, and Sharp looks a roll ahead across all twenty-one dice combinations before it commits. Matches run to three, five or seven points, with a gammon worth double and a backgammon triple, and the doubling cube on the bar if you want the swing. A running pip count sits at the top, a score panel tallies the match, and your results are kept in your browser.