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The aim of a Backgammon match is to move your chips around the game board and get those pieces from the board quicker than your competitor who works harder to achieve the same buthowever they move in the opposing direction. Succeeding in a round in Backgammon requires both tactics and luck. How far you will be able to shift your pieces is up to the numbers from tossing a pair of dice, and just how you shift your checkers are determined by your overall playing strategies. Players use a number of strategies in the different stages of a game dependent on your positions and opponent's.

The Running Game Technique

The goal of the Running Game plan is to bring all your chips into your home board and pull them off as fast as you can. This plan concentrates on the pace of advancing your chips with no time spent to hit or block your opponent's pieces. The best time to use this technique is when you think you might be able to shift your own chips a lot faster than the opposition does: when 1) you have less pieces on the game board; 2) all your pieces have moved beyond your opponent's pieces; or 3) your opposing player doesn't use the hitting or blocking strategy.

The Blocking Game Plan

The main goal of the blocking strategy, by its name, is to block your opponent's checkers, temporarily, not worrying about moving your checkers rapidly. Once you have established the barrier for your competitor's movement with a couple of checkers, you can shift your other chips quickly off the board. The player will need to also have an apparent strategy when to back off and move the chips that you used for the blockade. The game becomes interesting when your competitor utilizes the same blocking strategy.