The Basics of Backgammon Strategies – Part 2

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As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a casino game of skill and luck. The goal is to move your chips safely around the game board to your inside board while at the same time your opponent moves their chips toward their home board in the opposite direction. With competing player pieces heading in opposite directions there is going to be conflict and the need for particular strategies at particular times. Here are the last two Backgammon strategies to round out your game.

The Priming Game Plan

If the purpose of the blocking plan is to hamper the opponents ability to move his pieces, the Priming Game strategy is to completely barricade any activity of the opponent by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s pieces will either get bumped, or end up in a battered position if he/she ever attempts to leave the wall. The trap of the prime can be built anywhere between point two and point eleven in your board. Once you have successfully constructed the prime to block the activity of your opponent, the competitor does not even get a chance to roll the dice, that means you move your pieces and roll the dice yet again. You will be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Tactic

The goals of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game tactic are similar – to hurt your opponent’s positions in hope to boost your odds of winning, however the Back Game tactic relies on different tactics to do that. The Back Game plan is commonly utilized when you are far behind your opponent. To compete in Backgammon with this tactic, you have to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This strategy is more challenging than others to employ in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your pieces and how the chips are relocated is partly the outcome of the dice toss.