Backgammon – 3 General Strategies

[ English ]

In extraordinarily simple terms, there are three basic strategies employed. You need to be agile enough to hop between tactics quickly as the course of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This comprises of creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you can achieve, to lock in your competitor’s checkers that are on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most adequate course of action at the begining of the match. You can assemble the wall anyplace inbetween your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shift it into your home board as the match progresses.

The Blitz

This involves closing your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your opposer on the bar. i.e., if your opponent tosses an early 2 and shifts one piece from your one-point to your three-point and you then roll a 5-5, you can play 6/1 6/1 8/3 8/3. Your competitor is then in serious trouble since they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have closed half your home board!

The Backgame

This tactic is where you have 2 or higher pieces in your competitor’s inner board. (An anchor is a point occupied by at a minimum two of your checkers.) It needs to be employed when you are extremely behind as it much improves your chances. The strongest areas for anchors are close to your competitor’s lower points and either on adjacent points or with one point separating them. Timing is important for a powerful backgame: after all, there’s no point having 2 nice anchor spots and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this straight away, while your opposer is getting their pieces home, because you do not have other additional checkers to move! In this situation, it is more favorable to have pieces on the bar so that you are able to maintain your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it will be a great idea to try and get your competitor to hit them in this case!

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