Instructions

Welcome to MyNuMo backgammon.

You can select a game against the computer opponent or play with a friend by sharing your iPhone/iPod touch.

Objective: The objective of backgammon is to move all of one's own playing pieces (sometimes called a checker) past those of one's opponent and then remove them from the board.

Rules: After rolling the dice a player must, if possible, move his checkers according to the number of spaces (pips) shown on each die.

For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (noted as "6-3"), that player must move one checker six points forward, and another checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six, but not all nine at once.

You can select the piece you want to move by tapping on the checker you want to move. The available destinations will be highlighted. You can then tap a destination or unselect the checker by tapping them again (or using the UNSELECT button).

If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 6-6 that player must move four checkers forward six spaces each.

In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker; such a lone piece is called a blot. In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously. Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the hitting player's home board (just tap the clip on the bar to select it for a move). A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.

When all of a player's checkers are in the player's home board (the home board area is indicated by your player name and colored checker on the left side of the board), that player may start removing them; this is called bearing off. You will see a BEAR OFF button as a destination, when this move is available. A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.