The Basics of Backgammon Strategies – Part 2

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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 chips safely around the game board to your inside board while at the same time your opposition moves their checkers toward their home board in the opposing direction. With competing player chips shifting in opposite directions there is bound to be conflict and the requirement for particular strategies at particular times. Here are the last two Backgammon tactics to round out your game.

The Priming Game Tactic

If the purpose of the blocking strategy is to hamper the opponents ability to move their pieces, the Priming Game plan is to absolutely barricade any movement of the opponent by creating a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s checkers will either get bumped, or result a bad position if he ever attempts to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be setup anywhere between point 2 and point 11 in your half of the board. As soon as you’ve successfully built the prime to block the movement of the opponent, your competitor does not even get to roll the dice, and you shift your pieces and toss the dice again. You’ll win the game for sure.

The Back Game Tactic

The aims of the Back Game tactic and the Blocking Game plan are very similar – to hinder your opponent’s positions in hope to improve your chances of winning, however the Back Game strategy utilizes seperate tactics to achieve that. The Back Game tactic is often employed when you’re far behind your competitor. To participate in Backgammon with this strategy, you need to control two or more points in table, and to hit a blot late in the game. This tactic is more difficult than others to play in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your pieces and how the checkers are relocated is partly the outcome of the dice roll.