Backgammon – 3 General Plans
In exceptionally general terms, there are three fundamental plans employed. You want to be able to hop between tactics almost instantly as the action of the match unfolds.
The Blockade
This comprises of assembling a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at a minimum as thick as you might manage, to lock in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most adequate strategy at the begining of the game. You can assemble the wall anywhere within your eleven-point and your 2-point and then move it into your home board as the game continues.
The Blitz
This is composed of closing your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your opposer on the bar. For example, if your opponent tosses an early two and shifts one piece from your 1-point to your 3-point and you then toss a 5-5, you can play 6/1 6/1 8/3 eight/three. Your challenger is then in serious difficulty since they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have closed half your home board!
The Backgame
This strategy is where you have two or more pieces in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor is a position consisting of at least two of your pieces.) It needs to be used when you are extremely behind as it greatly improves your chances. The better locations for anchors are near your competitor’s smaller points and also on adjoining points or with a single point separating them. Timing is integral for a powerful backgame: besides, there is no reason having 2 nice anchors and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then required to break apart this right away, while your competitor is getting their checkers home, seeing that you don’t have other extra checkers to shift! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you can preserve your position up until your competitor provides you an opportunity to hit, so it can be a good idea to attempt and get your challenger to hit them in this case!