Backgammon online

Play backgammon with people, friends and bots. Every game analysed.

Find an opponent at your level, run a chouette with your friends, or practise against bots from beginner to perfect play. Review shows where you lost, Explore collects your mistakes, and Learn teaches the game from the rules to the doubling cube.

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Free to start: an account, matches against people, and free tokens every day for bot games. Nothing to install: it runs in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Mobile apps coming soon.

A game against a bot in Choue: the board, the game log and the analysis of the move just played

The same game on a phone, with the panels below the board

Play people

Find a match in seconds

Say what you would play, and Choue finds an opponent whose search fits yours: a match length, a clock and a level you both accept. Both of you confirm, and the match opens.

Match lengths from short to long, or unlimited money play
Blitz, Normal, Casual or no clock; Competition or Consultation with the analysis shown
Opponent level from Beginner to Super Human, by PR
Challenge a friend, ask for a rematch, watch other players' games
Keep searching while you play a bot: the bot game waits when a match is found

How matchmaking works →

Find a match: match length 3 to 7 points, clocks Blitz, Normal and Casual, modes Competition and Consultation, opponent level from Beginner to Super Human

Match found: a 7 point match, Blitz, competition, with Decline and Accept

Bots

Bots that play like people, at the level you choose

Five bots, from Patient Pat at PR 20 to Perfect Paige at 0. Their mistakes come from the same analysis that rates you, so a PR 12 bot plays like a PR 12 player: sound most of the time, wrong now and then. The list suggests one close to your own level.

Always there, no waiting; a clock if you want one
The game pauses while you are away and goes on when you are back
Analysis of every move as you play, if you choose to see it
Play any saved position against the strongest bot, as often as you like

Your first game against a bot →

Start a new bot game: the bot, the match length, move analysis during the match, the pip count and the clock

Chouettes

The chouette, done properly

One player, the box, plays against everyone else. The captain moves the team's checkers, and every team member has a cube of their own: each decides alone whether to take or drop, and each may double the box. Choue was made for this.

Shuffle draws the order of play; after each game it moves on, by the rules your chouette chooses
Partner in the box, skip the box, offer deals: the table's customs, on the board
Scoring per opponent, kept for you, with the game log and every player's PR
Run it with friends, or fill seats with bots and play a chouette alone
Admins admit players, change the order, pause, and suspend a session to finish it later

What is a chouette? →

The end of a chouette game: the box won 2 points, doubling two team members who both dropped; errors, luck and PR below

Getting started in a chouette: the players as box, captain and crew, with Play box solo, Partner in box and Skip box

The only online backgammon site that plays most chouette variants

General

Who may join and watch, stakes, up to 20 players, the clock, the Jacoby rule, analysis during play, dice by hand.

Players

How the next box is chosen, who partners the box, when the box may be skipped, and from how many players the team consults, partners and gets extras.

Cube action

The highest cube; beavers, raccoons and aardvarks; whether the box doubles and takes against all, a majority or anyone; extras off, optional or mandatory.

All chouette settings, explained →

The name

Choue, as in chouette

Choue began as a site for one thing only: playing chouettes online. The name is short for chouette, the proper name of backgammon for three or more players, and is pronounced like shoe. In French a chouette is also a small owl, which is where the owl comes from. Matches, bots, Review and Learn came later; the chouette is still the heart of it.

Review

Every game analysed. Every error found.

GNU Backgammon analyses each game you play. Review opens it at your first error: the board shows the position, the analysis lists the best moves for that roll and how much each loses, cube decisions included.

Your PR, the performance rating as in eXtreme Gammon, per match and over all your games
Luck and errors separated, so you know which was which
Step through the game, or jump from error to error
Download your matches for your own tools

Review a finished game →

Review of a game: the position before an error, the game log with the errors marked, and the list of moves with the equity each loses

Explore and Setup

Your mistakes, collected and searchable

Explore keeps every position of your games where you or your opponent went wrong, and the positions you save yourself. Query them, study them, and mark them reviewed when you have understood them.

All blunders, the biggest first; the ones still to study; or a query of your own
The analysis of every position, with the move you played marked
Notes on each position, and variants to try another idea
Set up any position on the board and play it out against the bot

Find your mistakes in Explore →

Explore: the query All blunders with its positions, one selected on the board, and its analysis with the error of the move played

Learn

From the rules to pip counting

New to backgammon? Learn starts with the rules and goes on with the Backgammon 101 course: safe play, game plans, checker play, doubling and pip counting, each lesson on the board.

Backgammon 101: eight modules, from the rules to extra credit
Tutorials for everything in Choue, with screenshots, and help on every page
A glossary of the game's and the chouette's terms

The course is adapted from Backgammon 101, by Orad Reshef.

Start with Backgammon 101 →

A Backgammon 101 page in Learn: the board and the setup, with the starting position on the board and the home board marked

Quizzes and master classes

Lessons by a Super Grandmaster

Dirk Schiemann's To Hit, or not to Hit is a course of quizzes: eight chapters of positions to solve, from the reasons for hitting to the tempo hit, the double hit, and hitting or making a point. Each position asks for your play, then shows the analysis of every move and Dirk's commentary. The first chapter is free; the others are premium lessons. His master class, Ugly Plays, is there too.

Positions to solve on the board, with the analysis of every answer
Your progress is kept per lesson, so you carry on where you stopped

How lessons and quizzes work →

An answered position of To Hit, or not to Hit: the board with the hit marked, the analysis of both moves with the equity each loses, and Dirk Schiemann's explanation

Everything explained, step by step

The tutorials cover all of Choue, with screenshots from the app as it is today. Read them here, without an account.

Quick start

From your account to your first chouette, in a few steps.

Backgammon 101

The rules, then a course from playing safe to doubling and pip counting.

Getting started

Your account, your way around the Lobby, and your preferences.

Playing a game

Your first game against a bot, the board, the cube, and the game panels.

Playing people

Find a match, challenge friends, rematch, and watch games.

Chouette play

What a chouette is, joining one, and the roles you play.

Running a chouette

Set up a chouette, run its sessions, and administer them, with bots or friends.

Review and improve

Review your games, read the analysis, explore your mistakes, practise positions.

Community

Players, friends, messages, chat and discussions.

Reference

Roles, states, shortcuts, devices, dice and more.

Glossary

The terms of Choue, the chouette and the game.

Any screen

On your computer, tablet and phone

Choue runs in any modern browser. The layout follows the screen: on a phone the panels go below the board in portrait and beside it in landscape. Sign in on several devices and carry a game from one to the other.

Light and dark theme, and board colours of your choice
A game you leave waits for you; a suspended match is resumed later
Keyboard shortcuts on a computer, drag or tap on a touch screen
Apps for iPhone and Android coming soon

Community

Players, friends and talk about the game

Players and friends

Find players by name or level, see who is online, send a friend request, and challenge a friend straight from their card.

Messages and chat

Chat at the table during a game, and write to players between games. Your messages follow you to every device.

Discuss

A forum for positions, games and anything backgammon. A post can include a position from your games or from Explore.

Pricing

Free to play people. Tokens for the rest.

An account, matches against people and the analysis of your games are free. Bot games, chouette sessions and deeper analysis cost tokens: every day you can claim 300 for free, enough for 10 bot games, and playing earns more. A plan refills your tokens every month and includes what you use most.

Free

300 tokens a day to claim, bonuses for playing

Matches against people
Review of every game
Learn and the tutorials
Everything else for tokens

Bronze

$4.99/month

5,000 tokens a month, 10% off token packs

Explore queries included
Bot games included

Silver

$8.49/month

7,500 tokens a month, 20% off token packs

Everything in Bronze
Quiz creation included
Chouette sessions included

Gold

$11.99/month

10,000 tokens a month, 25% off token packs

Everything in Silver
Deep analysis included: 4-ply moves and cube, dice distributions

Ultimate

$19.99/month

15,000 tokens a month, 30% off token packs

Everything in Gold
Premium chouettes included

Early access phase: Free premium feature usage^*

^* Master classes excluded.

Token prices without a plan: a bot game 30, a custom Explore query 5, opening a position 2, a 4-ply move analysis 40, a 4-ply cube decision 30, a dice distribution 150, a chouette session 500. Token packs from 1,000 tokens for $0.99. Prices in US dollars.

Team

The people behind Choue

Dirk Schiemann

Super Grandmaster

Super Grandmaster of the Backgammon Masters Awarding Body and Online World Champion. World Team Champion with Germany in 2018, three times in a row the winner of the Best of the Best invitational, among the Giants of Backgammon from 1999 to 2005. Author of The Theory of Backgammon and To Hit, or not to Hit.

dirk-schiemann.de BMAB titles

Jörg Heilig

Founder

Jörg worked at Sun Microsystems, Google, Uber and GitLab. He is a Backgammon enthusiast and built Choue initially for his friends. He is now enjoying bringing Choue to the world.

Jeremy Bagai

Author

Author of Classic Backgammon Revisited and Bagai's Replies: Mastering the Second Roll, and the publisher behind the Fortuitous Press. His annotated match with Kit Woolsey was one of the first backgammon lessons on the Internet. A Ph.D. in the psychology of decision making, and a backgammon teacher.

The Fortuitous Press

Three steps to your first game

1
Create a free account
A username and a password, or sign in with Google. It takes a minute.
2
Play
A bot is ready at once. Find a match with a human, or set up a chouette and invite your friends.
3
Review
Open the finished game at your first error, and let Explore collect the positions to study.

Create a free account

Questions

What is a chouette?

A chouette is backgammon for three or more players. One player, the box, plays against everyone else, the team. The team's captain moves the checkers, and every team member has a cube of their own against the box, so the box can win against some and lose against others in the same game. After each game the order moves on. More in the tutorials.

Where does the name Choue come from?

Choue is short for chouette, the name of backgammon for three or more players, which the site was made for, and is pronounced like shoe. In French a chouette is also a small owl, hence the owl. More on the name.

Is Choue free?

Yes. In the current early access phase all features, including the premium features, are free, except for the master classes.

How is my play analysed?

Every game is analysed by GNU Backgammon. Review opens a game at your first error and lists the best moves for every roll with how much each loses; Explore collects the positions you got wrong so you can study them.

What is a PR?

Your performance rating measures how well you played: the equity you lost through errors, averaged over your decisions and multiplied by 500, as defined by eXtreme Gammon. Lower is better: below 5 is world class, around 10 a strong club player, above 20 a beginner. The bots are labelled with the PR they play at.

Does Choue run on my phone?

Choue runs in any modern browser on a computer, a tablet or a phone. The layout follows the screen, and you can be signed in on several devices at once. Apps for iPhone and Android are coming soon.

Do I need to know the rules?

No. Learn starts with the rules and goes on with the Backgammon 101 course, from safe play and game plans to the doubling cube and pip counting, with positions to solve on the board.

Can I play with my club or my friends?

Yes. A chouette can be private, with the players you invite, and you can challenge any friend to a match. Sessions can be scheduled, and a session you cannot finish is suspended and resumed later.