Backgammon Information

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In astonishingly general terms, there are three fundamental tactics used. You must be agile enough to hop between game plans almost instantly as the action of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This is composed of creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at least as thick as you can manage, to lock in your competitor’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most acceptable procedure at the begining of the game. You can build the wall anywhere inbetween your eleven-point and your two-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match advances.

The Blitz

This is composed of closing your home board as fast as possible while keeping your opponent on the bar. e.g., if your opponent tosses an early two and shifts one piece from your 1-point to your three-point and you then roll a 5-5, you will be able to play 6/1 six/one 8/3 eight/three. Your opponent is now in big-time trouble because they have two checkers on the bar and you have locked half your home board!

The Backgame

This tactic is where you have 2 or more checkers in your opponent’s home board. (An anchor spot is a position consisting of at a minimum two of your pieces.) It would be used when you are significantly behind as this strategy much improves your chances. The strongest locations for anchor spots are close to your competitor’s lower points and also on abutting points or with a single point separating them. Timing is important for an effective backgame: besides, there’s no point having two nice anchors and a solid wall in your own home board if you are then required to break down this straight away, while your challenger is moving their checkers home, considering that you don’t have any other additional checkers to shift! In this situation, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you can preserve your position up until your opponent provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a great idea to try and get your opponent to hit them in this situation!