Archive for September 17th, 2015

Backgammon – 3 Basic Plans

In very simple terms, there are 3 main game plans used. You need to be agile enough to switch techniques quickly as the course of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This is comprised of building a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you can achieve, to lock in the competitor’s checkers that are on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most suitable strategy at the start of the match. You can assemble the wall anyplace within your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shift it into your home board as the game progresses.

The Blitz

This consists of locking your home board as quickly as as you can while keeping your opponent on the bar. For example, if your challenger rolls an early two and moves one checker from your one-point to your three-point and you then toss a 5-5, you can play 6/1 six/one 8/3 8/3. Your opposer is then in big-time difficulty taking into account that they have two checkers on the bar and you have locked half your home board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have 2 or higher pieces in your opponent’s home board. (An anchor spot is a position occupied by at a minimum two of your checkers.) It would be played when you are extremely behind as it much improves your chances. The better locations for anchors are near your competitor’s lower points and either on adjacent points or with one point in between. Timing is integral for a competent backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no reason having two nice anchors and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then required to dismantle this straight away, while your competitor is moving their checkers home, considering that you do not have other spare pieces to shift! In this situation, it is better to have checkers on the bar so that you might maintain your position until your opposer gives you a chance to hit, so it can be a wonderful idea to attempt and get your opposer to get them in this situation!

 

The Essential Basics of Backgammon Tactics – Part Two

As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a casino game of talent and good luck. The aim is to move your chips carefully around the board to your home board while at the same time your opposition shifts their chips toward their inner board in the opposite direction. With competing player pieces moving in opposing directions there is bound to be conflict and the requirement for specific strategies at specific instances. Here are the 2 final Backgammon strategies to complete your game.

The Priming Game Strategy

If the purpose of the blocking tactic is to hamper the opponents ability to shift his checkers, the Priming Game tactic is to absolutely stop any activity of the opposing player by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s chips will either get hit, or end up in a damaged position if he/she at all tries to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be setup anyplace between point two and point eleven in your half of the board. As soon as you’ve successfully constructed the prime to prevent the movement of the opponent, your competitor does not even get to toss the dice, that means you move your chips and roll the dice again. You’ll win the game for sure.

The Back Game Strategy

The goals of the Back Game strategy and the Blocking Game plan are similar – to harm your opponent’s positions in hope to improve your odds of winning, but the Back Game plan utilizes different tactics to achieve that. The Back Game plan is often utilized when you’re far behind your competitor. To play Backgammon with this plan, you need to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This technique is more complex than others to use in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your chips and how the checkers are moved is partly the outcome of the dice roll.