Backgammon Information

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As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of skill and luck. The goal is to move your chips safely around the board to your inner board while at the same time your opposition moves their pieces toward their inner board in the opposing direction. With competing player checkers moving in opposite directions there is going to be conflict and the need for particular techniques at particular instances. Here are the last two Backgammon strategies to complete your game.

The Priming Game Tactic

If the aim of the blocking strategy is to hamper the opponents ability to shift his pieces, the Priming Game strategy is to completely barricade any activity of the opponent by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s chips will either get hit, or end up in a bad position if he/she ever tries to escape the wall. The trap of the prime can be setup anywhere between point two and point eleven in your game board. After you’ve successfully built the prime to prevent the activity of your opponent, your competitor doesn’t even get a chance to roll the dice, that means you shift your chips and roll the dice again. You’ll be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Strategy

The goals of the Back Game plan and the Blocking Game technique are very similar – to hinder your opponent’s positions in hope to better your odds of succeeding, however the Back Game strategy utilizes different techniques to achieve that. The Back Game technique is generally used when you are far behind your competitor. To compete in Backgammon with this technique, you have to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This strategy is more complex than others to play in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your pieces and how the pieces are moved is partially the outcome of the dice roll.

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Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

In extraordinarily general terms, there are three main techniques employed. You need to be agile enough to hop between techniques quickly as the action of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This involves building a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at a minimum as thick as you can achieve, to block in your competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most suitable strategy at the begining of the game. You can build the wall anyplace inbetween your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shift it into your home board as the game progresses.

The Blitz

This consists of closing your home board as fast as as you can while keeping your competitor on the bar. For example, if your challenger rolls an early 2 and moves one piece from your 1-point to your 3-point and you then toss a 5-5, you can play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your challenger is now in serious dire straits seeing that they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inside board!

The Backgame

This strategy is where you have 2 or higher checkers in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor is a position consisting of at a minimum two of your pieces.) It should be employed when you are decidedly behind as this action greatly improves your opportunities. The better areas for anchor spots are near your competitor’s smaller points and either on adjacent points or with a single point separating them. Timing is essential for a competent backgame: after all, there’s no point having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own home board if you are then forced to break apart this right away, while your opposer is moving their pieces home, seeing that you don’t have any other extra checkers to move! In this situation, it is more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you might maintain your position up until your challenger gives you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a wonderful idea to attempt and get your opposer to get them in this case!