Backgammon – 3 General Strategies

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Posted by Nadia | Posted in Backgammon | Posted on 01-10-2023

In astonishingly general terms, there are 3 chief strategies employed. You need to be agile enough to hop between game plans quickly as the action of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This consists of building a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at a minimum as deep as you might achieve, to lock in the competitor’s checkers that are located on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most suitable tactic at the start of the match. You can build the wall anywhere within your 11-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match continues.

The Blitz

This involves closing your home board as quick as possible while keeping your opposer on the bar. i.e., if your opposer rolls an early two and shifts one piece from your 1-point to your 3-point and you then roll a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your opposer is then in big-time calamity seeing that they have two checkers on the bar and you have locked half your inner board!

The Backgame

This strategy is where you have two or more checkers in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor is a position consisting of at least 2 of your checkers.) It must be employed when you are decidedly behind as this strategy much improves your opportunities. The strongest places for anchor spots are close to your opponent’s lower points and also on adjacent points or with one point separating them. Timing is integral for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there is no reason having 2 nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break down this right away, while your opponent is getting their pieces home, considering that you don’t have any other spare checkers to move! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you can preserve your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a great idea to attempt and get your challenger to get them in this case!

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