Board Games Online

The quiet end of the arcade: dominoes, draughts, disc flipping, rows of four, sowing seeds and a couple of gentler strategy games. Most are played against a computer opponent at Easy, Medium or Hard, and the daily and weekly boards deal everyone the same line-up so scores can be compared. The Parlor games have undo and hint for a small score cost, and all of them play with taps, clicks or the keyboard.

15 board games, oldest first

Ivory & Ebony 1983 Full chess against the computer: castling, en passant, promotion, check, mate and the draw rules. Every day brings a set of three mate puzzles, mate in one, two and three.
Starlane Marbles 1985 Ten marbles a side on a six-pointed star of 121 holes. Step to a neighbouring hole, or jump over any marble into the empty hole beyond and keep jumping, then hop your whole point across to the opposite tip before the computer does. One hop chain is one move. Daily is a medium opponent, weekly is hard, and a game with no progress for sixty turns is scored on how far each side still has to go.
Pip & Point 1994 Backgammon played for points only. Roll, hit a lone checker, race home and bear off. A win scores one point, a gammon two, a backgammon three.
Pip Parlor 1994 Double-six dominoes against a patient computer, in Draw or Block, with a daily game and a weekly one.
Hex Harvest 1995 Claim hexes before the blight does. Plants root in any gap they surround and blight creeps in behind.
Crown Draughts 1997 English draughts on an eight-by-eight board with compulsory captures and kings that move both ways.
Flip Court 1998 Bracket a line of the other colour to flip it. Corners are gold, and the last disc count decides.
Fogbound Fleet 1999 Hide five harbour birds on a ten-by-ten sea, then trade shots with a computer captain who hunts through the fog. Sink the whole fleet first.
Rowan Four 1999 Drop discs into a seven-column wooden rack and be the first to line up four.
Hopstone 2000 A small board of dark and light stones. Hop one of yours over a rival stone into the empty square beyond, taking it, and keep hopping in the same line if you like. When your rival has nowhere left to land, you win. Two opponents a day.
Seedpath 2000 Scoop a pit of seeds and sow them round the board. Land in your store to go again.
Mill & Stone 2001 Nine pieces a side. Place them, slide them, and make three in a row to take an enemy piece.
Fivefold Grove 2002 Alternate stones on a fifteen-by-fifteen board. The first to five or more in an unbroken line wins.
Nine Stones 2008 Go on a nine-by-nine board with area scoring, a ko rule and a patient computer opponent. Every day brings three capture puzzles to solve.
Corral Claim 2013 Fence in the paddocks, claim the cows and steal the herd from a farmhand who sharpens every round.