Backgammon – Three Main Schemes
Posted in Backgammon on 05/26/2022 11:25 pm by Jillian
In astonishingly general terms, there are three chief strategies employed. You need to be able to switch game plans almost instantly as the action of the match unfolds.
The Blockade
This comprises of assembling a 6-thick wall of checkers, or at a minimum as deep as you might manage, to lock in your opponent’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most adequate strategy at the start of the match. You can build the wall anyplace between your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match progresses.
The Blitz
This is composed of locking your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your challenger on the bar. i.e., if your competitor rolls an early 2 and moves one checker from your 1-point to your 3-point and you then toss a five-five, you are able to play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your challenger is now in serious trouble seeing that they have two pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inside board!
The Backgame
This plan is where you have two or higher checkers in your opponent’s home board. (An anchor is a point consisting of at least 2 of your pieces.) It would be played when you are extremely behind as it much improves your circumstances. The better areas for anchor spots are towards your opponent’s lower points and also on abutting points or with one point in between. Timing is integral for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no point having 2 nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this straight away, while your opposer is getting their pieces home, seeing that you don’t have other extra checkers to move! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you can maintain your position up until your challenger provides you a chance to hit, so it can be a wonderful idea to attempt and get your challenger to hit them in this case!