The Essential Details of Backgammon Strategies – Part 2

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As we dicussed in the last article, Backgammon is a game of skill and luck. The goal is to move your checkers safely around the game board to your inner board while at the same time your opponent moves their checkers toward their home board in the opposing direction. With opposing player chips heading in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the need for specific strategies at particular instances. Here are the two final Backgammon techniques to finish off your game.

The Priming Game Plan

If the purpose of the blocking strategy is to slow down the opponent to shift their chips, the Priming Game strategy is to completely barricade any activity of the opponent by building a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s checkers will either get hit, or end up in a bad position if she at all attempts to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be established anywhere between point two and point 11 in your half of the board. Once you have successfully built the prime to prevent the movement of your opponent, your competitor doesn’t even get to roll the dice, and you move your checkers and roll the dice again. You will win the game for sure.

The Back Game Technique

The aims of the Back Game strategy and the Blocking Game technique are similar – to hinder your competitor’s positions with hope to boost your odds of winning, however the Back Game plan uses different techniques to achieve that. The Back Game technique is often employed when you are far behind your competitor. To participate in Backgammon with this plan, you need to hold two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This strategy is more complex than others to play in Backgammon because it requires careful movement of your checkers and how the checkers are relocated is partially the outcome of the dice roll.