The Essential Basics of Backgammon Tactics – Part Two
Wednesday, 10. January 2024
As we have dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of talent and luck. The goal is to move your chips safely around the game board to your inside board while at the same time your opponent moves their pieces toward their home board in the opposite direction. With competing player pieces shifting in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the need for particular techniques at specific times. Here are the two final Backgammon strategies to finish off your game.
The Priming Game Plan
If the aim of the blocking strategy is to slow down the opponent to shift their pieces, the Priming Game tactic is to completely barricade any movement of the opponent by creating a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s pieces will either get hit, or end up in a battered position if he ever tries to escape the wall. The trap of the prime can be setup anywhere between point 2 and point 11 in your half of the board. After you have successfully built the prime to prevent the movement of the opponent, the opponent doesn’t even get a chance to toss the dice, and you move your checkers and toss the dice again. You will be a winner for sure.
The Back Game Tactic
The aims of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game tactic are similar – to hurt your competitor’s positions hoping to boost your odds of winning, however the Back Game strategy uses alternate tactics to do that. The Back Game plan is generally used when you’re far behind your opponent. To participate in Backgammon with this strategy, you need to hold 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This tactic is more complex than others to use in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your checkers and how the chips are moved is partially the result of the dice toss.
Posted in Backgammon by Jada