Backgammon Strategies

Techniques of Backgammon

make them your second nature

Backgammon is an entertaining game, but if you are interested in increasing your chances to win the game, some efforts on your side may be required. The main goal of the game of backgammon is to get all of your game pieces onto the homeboard and then to determine an approach to get all those pieces off the board without getting one of your pieces hit just before they are all out. The first player to successfully achieve this goal is the winner of the game.  

The competitive strategies you should adopt in order to be successful in this game can only come to play once you are fully familiar with every single rule of this game. Don't be alarmed - all of the instructions and rules associated with the game are simple and one can easily understand the basics of the game without any problems. 

In backgammon, an Anchor is a point which is occupied at least by 2 of your checkers. Most of the backgammon strategies revolve around where you decide to keep these anchors, and when you decide to open them. To open an anchor basically means you want to remove (or sometimes have to remove) a checker from an anchor and by that you leave the remaining checker vulnerable.  

You can use backgame when you are left too behind. Proper timing is a crucial factor while using backgame strategy. It is not wise to use backgame from the beginning. In fact the backgame is a strategy that players use when they began to lose the game. This strategy makes you less likely to lose if you are already losing. 

The most important aspect of backgammon game strategies is to reach your early game targets as soon as possible. The sooner you achieve your early game targets, the higher your wining chances are. This will leave you free to concentrate on your future game plan and make your opponent work hard to keep up with your game.

Some of thecommon strategies that you may utilize in order to win the game include:

The running game is the most direct strategy, and is usually considered to be the best strategy for beginners. This strategy merely includes avoiding being hit, getting trapped, or winding up in mutually blocked stand-offs. This goal is achieved by getting your pieces to your side of the board as quickly as possible, without holding any pieces on your opponent's side of the board. This actually means that your first priority is to get the deepest pieces (the pieces that are located inside your opponent's homeboard) out of there as soon as possible. This common strategy is principally beneficial when you are ahead in the game.

In this commonly used strategy, you can maintain an anchor (as mentioned before ? an anchor is a point with at least two of your pieces) to block a point high in your opponent's board (preferably in your opponent's homeboard) or even on his bar point. The best places for anchors are towards your opponent's lower point. The moment he tries to arrange his pieces inside his homeboard for removal, you may either hit your opponent's pieces from the held point, and then by rolling large doubles you can break the point and even take the lead. This strategy is particularly useful when you are behind in the game, which usually happens if you only got low numbers during your dice rolls early in the game, or if some of your pieces were hit by your opponent close to your homeboard. 

Sometimes when you wait for the last moment, and keep your holding point within your opponent's homeboard, you may end up hitting one or more of your opponent's pieces (sometimes even his very last one!), and if your side of the board is blocked, your opponent may end up waiting on the bar as you take out all of your pieces. A Back-game is a situation when you have more than two pieces in your opponent's homeboard (in case some of your pieces got hit by your opponent). In the case of back-game, you have 2 or more anchors in your opponent?s homeboard. The best places for anchors are towards your opponent?s lower point and either on adjacent points or with a single point in between. Proper timing is a crucial factor while utilizing back-game or priming game strategies. It is not wise to use these strategies from the beginning. Remember - these strategies should only be used when their aim is to make you less likely to lose when you are already behind.

This strategy emphasizes on building a 6-long wall of checkers, or at least as long as you can manage to build it, so that you can restrict your opponent's checkers that are behind your 'line of defense'. If you have 6 spots blocked, it means that your opponent can no pass this wall even if he rolls a six on his dice. This means that he will have to move his pieces elsewhere, in places he does not want to move them. This also means that your opponent has pieces "stuck" in your side of the board, and he can not start to take pieces out. This strategy is mostly useful when your opponent decided to keep a holding point (an anchor) within your homeboard, and using this strategy you can keep him stuck there longer than he originally intended.

Flipping your game

It is important to evaluate your opponent, and try to determine what his strategy is. It is also important to keep in mind that your opponent is doing exactly the same - he is observing your moves, to determine what your strategy is. This way he can anticipate your moves, and decide on his moves according to these predictions. This is why it is important to master the flipping game, which basically means to be able to flip your strategy in one instant, to get your opponent out of balance. This means that you can at times "start the game with a bang" and play an aggressive game in the beginning, but then suddenly become defensive. Your opponent expects you to keep on the blitz, when you do the exact opposite of what he expects.

Closing up your Homeboard Points

Keeping a neat homeboard can spoil your opponent?s game by keeping his checkers on the bar after you managed to hit some of his pieces. A neat homeboard means that you keep anchors (at least two of your checkers) on as many of the points within the homeboard as possible. If you manage to keep anchors on all of your homeboard points, you can sometime get back to the game even if you are very far behind. 

A typical situation is if you keep a holding point within your opponent's homeboard, and keep a neat homeboard on your side. As your opponent starts to take his pieces out, he may have to leave some of them exposed (a single piece on a point), which may give you a chance to hit him at that point (sometimes it may even be his very last piece!). If your home board is neat, and there are no open points, your opponent will have to sit and watch as you move all of your pieces into your homeboard, and wait for his chance to get back in to the game. It is worth mentioning that some points are more important than others, as those points can give you a leading edge. 

It is important to try to close the higher points first (the six and the five), and then work your way to the lower points. This way, even if your opponent manages to enter on point number one, you can still hit him again, and keep him on the bar.

Should You Be Defensive or Aggressive?

Like many other games, backgammon too involves the perennial question - which strategy is best - playing an aggressive game or keeping your game defensive. If we analyze the playing habits of various players over the years, we can easily determine that their game has become more and more aggressive over time. Most of the veteran gamers hold the opinion that it is better to take the initiative into your own hands, rather than to wait for your opponent to make his moves, and determine the pace of the game.

An aggressive game that utilizes innovative strategies always helps players choose and take the winning moves. In backgammon, taking risks is in most cases advantageous to your chances to win the game, but even more important is that taking risks is a lot of fun! Players should maintain the game in good pace so that the game does not become too slow and begins to fade its charm.

On the other hand it is important to distinguish between taking calculated risks and between taking the kamikaze strategy as your main strategy. It is true that in most cases an aggressive approach may help you win, but keep in mind that you should always asses the benefits of the strategy against the down sides. It is not wise to take huge risks when the benefit is small.

Doubling is an aggressive strategy

In a normal game of backgammon each game won by one of the players is initially worth one point. When one of the players accumulates wins, and reaches a predetermined number of points, he is declared a winner. Over the course of the game, any of the players may offer the doubling cube to his opponent. If the opponent accepts the cube, it is turned on the board so that the number 2 faces upwards and the game from that point is worth two points. The player that got the cube may in turn offer the cube back to his opponent, and if the opponent accepts it, the cube will be turned again, this time with the number 4 facing upward. This action may be repeated until the game's value is doubled 64 times over.

Some of the game's greatest players point to the doubling cube as one of the places where you can "show your aggression". Doubling the game plays a string psychological game on your opponent - in backgammon, one can not afford a situation in which his opponent comes to him; rather the player himself is the one that should try to reach his opponent.

Beaver - Pay for Your Misjudgment

A Beaver is an optional, but frequently used strategy that is applied when the doubling cube is offered to you by your opponent. Applying a beaver strategy means that the player, to whom the doubling cube was offered, automatically redoubles the game, so the game is now worth 4 points. When you immediately redouble, you keep control of the doubling cube. A Beaver is actually a punishment to your opponent's bad judgment of the situation, when he decided to offer you the doubling cube prematurely.

Winning Points

In backgammon play, a single win is worth one point, a gammon 2 points and backgammon 3 points. These points are multiplied by the number shown on the doubling cube. In other words, if a player uses the doubling cube and scores 2 x 2 = 4 points, he wins a gammon.