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In astonishingly general terms, there are 3 fundamental strategies used. You want to be agile enough to hop between game plans instantly as the action of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This involves creating a 6-deep wall of checkers, or at least as thick as you can manage, to barricade in the competitor's pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most acceptable strategy at the start of the game. You can assemble the wall anyplace between your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match advances.

The Blitz

This is comprised of closing your home board as quickly as as you can while keeping your opponent on the bar. e.g., if your opposer tosses an early two and moves one checker from your 1-point to your three-point and you then toss a 5-5, you will be able to play six/one 6/1 eight/three 8/3. Your competitor is now in big-time dire straits since they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!

The Backgame

This strategy is where you have two or more anchors in your opponent's home board. (An anchor spot is a point filled by at least 2 of your checkers.) It should be employed when you are significantly behind as it greatly improves your opportunities. The best places for anchors are near your opponent's lower points and also on adjacent points or with a single point separating them. Timing is essential for a competent backgame: besides, there is no reason having two nice anchors and a complete wall in your own home board if you are then required to break apart this straight away, while your opponent is moving their pieces home, because you don't have any other spare checkers to move! In this situation, it's more favorable to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position until your competitor gives you an opportunity to hit, so it will be a good idea to try and get your opponent to get them in this case!

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Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

As we have dicussed in the last article, Backgammon is a casino game of skill and good luck. The aim is to shift your chips safely around the game board to your inner board and at the same time your opponent shifts their checkers toward their inside board in the opposite direction. With opposing player checkers moving in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the requirement for particular tactics at specific instances. Here are the last 2 Backgammon tactics to round out your game.

The Priming Game Strategy

If the goal of the blocking strategy is to hamper the opponents ability to move her pieces, the Priming Game plan is to absolutely block any activity of the opposing player by creating a prime - ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent's checkers will either get hit, or result a damaged position if she at all tries to leave the wall. The trap of the prime can be built anywhere between point two and point eleven in your half of the board. As soon as you've successfully constructed the prime to prevent the activity of the competitor, your opponent doesn't even get to toss the dice, that means you shift your checkers and toss the dice yet again. You will be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Strategy

The objectives of the Back Game plan and the Blocking Game tactic are very similar - to harm your competitor's positions in hope to boost your odds of succeeding, but the Back Game strategy relies on alternate techniques to achieve that. The Back Game tactic is often utilized when you're far behind your opponent. To participate in Backgammon with this strategy, you have to hold two or more points in table, and to hit a blot late in the game. This plan is more difficult than others to employ in Backgammon seeing as it needs careful movement of your chips and how the chips are relocated is partly the result of the dice roll.