The Basics of Backgammon Strategies – Part Two

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As we have dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of ability and good luck. The goal is to move your pieces carefully around the game board to your inner board while at the same time your opposition shifts their checkers toward their inner board in the opposite direction. With opposing player checkers moving in opposing directions there is bound to be conflict and the need for specific techniques at specific times. Here are the last two Backgammon strategies to round out your game.

The Priming Game Tactic

If the goal of the blocking tactic is to hamper the opponents ability to move her chips, the Priming Game strategy is to absolutely stop any activity of the opponent by creating a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s checkers will either get hit, or end up in a bad position if he/she at all tries to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be setup anywhere between point 2 and point eleven in your board. Once you’ve successfully assembled the prime to stop the activity of the opponent, the opponent does not even get a chance to roll the dice, and you shift your chips and toss the dice yet again. You’ll be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Strategy

The goals of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game technique are similar – to hurt your competitor’s positions hoping to better your chances of succeeding, however the Back Game technique relies on alternate techniques to achieve that. The Back Game tactic is often utilized when you are far behind your opponent. To play Backgammon with this plan, you need to hold two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This tactic is more challenging than others to employ in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your checkers and how the chips are relocated is partly the outcome of the dice roll.