Archive for December 31st, 2015

Backgammon – Three General Techniques

Posted in Backgammon on 12/31/2015 01:21 am by Jillian
[ English ]

In exceptionally simple terms, there are three main strategies employed. You want to be agile enough to hop between tactics quickly as the course of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This comprises of building a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at least as deep as you might achieve, to block in your competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most suitable strategy at the start of the game. You can build the wall anyplace inbetween your 11-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the game continues.

The Blitz

This is composed of locking your home board as quickly as as you can while keeping your challenger on the bar. For example, if your opposer rolls an early two and moves one piece from your 1-point to your three-point and you then roll a five-five, you can play six/one six/one eight/three eight/three. Your opposer is now in serious calamity since they have two checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have two or higher anchors in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor spot is a position filled by at a minimum two of your checkers.) It needs to be used when you are extremely behind as this strategy greatly improves your circumstances. The better locations for anchor spots are towards your opponent’s smaller points and either on abutting points or with a single point in between. Timing is critical for an effectual backgame: besides, there is no point having 2 nice anchors and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break apart this straight away, while your opposer is shifting their checkers home, considering that you don’t have any other spare checkers to move! In this case, it is better to have checkers on the bar so that you are able to preserve your position up until your competitor gives you a chance to hit, so it can be a good idea to attempt and get your opponent to hit them in this situation!