Backgammon – Three General Plans
In extraordinarily general terms, there are 3 chief strategies used. You want to be agile enough to switch techniques almost instantly as the course of the game unfolds.
The Blockade
This is comprised of assembling a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at least as thick as you can achieve, to barricade in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most suitable tactic at the begining of the game. You can build the wall anywhere inbetween your 11-point and your two-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match advances.
The Blitz
This is composed of locking your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your challenger on the bar. i.e., if your challenger tosses an early two and shifts one piece from your 1-point to your three-point and you then roll a five-five, you can play 6/1 6/1 eight/three 8/3. Your competitor is then in big-time calamity taking into account that they have 2 pieces on the bar and you have locked half your inside board!
The Backgame
This plan is where you have two or higher pieces in your opponent’s home board. (An anchor spot is a point occupied by at a minimum 2 of your pieces.) It must be played when you are decidedly behind as it much improves your opportunities. The better areas for anchors are towards your opponent’s lower points and either on adjoining points or with one point separating them. Timing is critical for an effective backgame: after all, there is no point having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break down this straight away, while your opposer is getting their pieces home, because you do not have any other extra pieces to move! In this case, it’s more favorable to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be an excellent idea to try and get your opposer to hit them in this situation!