Backgammon – Three Main Schemes

Wednesday, 29. January 2025

In astonishingly general terms, there are three basic tactics employed. You need to be agile enough to switch strategies almost instantly as the action of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This is comprised of building a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at least as thick as you might manage, to lock in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most acceptable course of action at the start of the match. You can build the wall anywhere inbetween your eleven-point and your two-point and then move it into your home board as the match continues.

The Blitz

This consists of closing your home board as quick as as you can while keeping your opposer on the bar. i.e., if your opposer tosses an early 2 and moves one piece from your one-point to your 3-point and you then toss a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one 8/3 eight/three. Your competitor is then in big-time calamity because they have two checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inside board!

The Backgame

This tactic is where you have 2 or higher anchors in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor is a position occupied by at least 2 of your checkers.) It needs to be employed when you are significantly behind as this action greatly improves your circumstances. The better areas for anchors are close to your competitor’s smaller points and either on abutting points or with a single point in between. Timing is important for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there is no point having two nice anchor spots and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this straight away, while your opposer is moving their checkers home, considering that you do not have other additional checkers to move! In this case, it is more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you might preserve your position up until your opponent provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a wonderful idea to attempt and get your challenger to get them in this case!

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