Backgammon Information

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In astonishingly general terms, there are 3 main strategies used. You need to be agile enough to hop between strategies almost instantly as the course of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This involves building a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at a minimum as thick as you can manage, to lock in the competitor’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most acceptable strategy at the begining of the match. You can create the wall anywhere between your eleven-point and your two-point and then shift it into your home board as the match advances.

The Blitz

This consists of locking your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your challenger on the bar. i.e., if your opponent tosses an early two and moves one checker from your 1-point to your three-point and you then toss a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your opponent is now in serious calamity seeing that they have two checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have 2 or more anchors in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor is a point consisting of at least 2 of your checkers.) It needs to be employed when you are extremely behind as this action greatly improves your chances. The better places for anchor spots are towards your opponent’s lower points and either on abutting points or with one point separating them. Timing is critical for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no reason having 2 nice anchor spots and a solid wall in your own home board if you are then required to dismantle this straight away, while your opponent is shifting their pieces home, because you do not have any other additional checkers to shift! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position up till your opposer provides you an opportunity to hit, so it can be a wonderful idea to try and get your opposer to get them in this case!