Backgammon – Three Main Techniques

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In extraordinarily general terms, there are three main strategies employed. You must be able to hop between strategies almost instantly as the action of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This involves building a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at least as thick as you might manage, to block in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most acceptable tactic at the begining of the match. You can assemble the wall anyplace within your 11-point and your two-point and then move it into your home board as the game continues.

The Blitz

This is composed of locking your home board as fast as as you can while keeping your opposer on the bar. For example, if your opponent tosses an early 2 and shifts one piece from your one-point to your 3-point and you then toss a 5-5, you will be able to play 6/1 6/1 eight/three 8/3. Your competitor is then in serious dire straits due to the fact that they have two pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inside board!

The Backgame

This plan is where you have 2 or more checkers in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor is a point consisting of at a minimum 2 of your pieces.) It would be played when you are decidedly behind as it greatly improves your chances. The strongest locations for anchors are towards your opponent’s smaller points and either on abutting points or with a single point separating them. Timing is essential for an effective backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no point having two nice anchor spots and a solid wall in your own home board if you are then forced to break down this right away, while your opponent is shifting their checkers home, owing to the fact that you don’t have other extra checkers to shift! In this situation, it is better to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position until your opponent provides you an opportunity to hit, so it can be a wonderful idea to try and get your opposer to hit them in this situation!