Backgammon – Three Basic Schemes

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In very general terms, there are three general plans employed. You must be able to switch techniques almost instantly as the action of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This involves creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you can manage, to lock in the opponent’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is judged to be the most adequate strategy at the start of the match. You can create the wall anyplace within your 11-point and your 2-point and then shift it into your home board as the match continues.

The Blitz

This is comprised of locking your home board as fast as as you can while keeping your challenger on the bar. i.e., if your competitor rolls an early 2 and moves one piece from your one-point to your 3-point and you then toss a 5-5, you will be able to play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your challenger is now in big-time difficulty since they have 2 pieces on the bar and you have locked half your home board!

The Backgame

This plan is where you have two or more pieces in your competitor’s inner board. (An anchor is a point filled by at a minimum two of your checkers.) It needs to be used when you are significantly behind as this plan much improves your circumstances. The strongest places for anchors are close to your opponent’s smaller points and also on adjacent points or with a single point separating them. Timing is crucial for an effectual backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no point having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this right away, while your opponent is moving their checkers home, owing to the fact that you don’t have other spare pieces to move! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you are able to preserve your position up till your competitor gives you a chance to hit, so it will be a great idea to try and get your opponent to hit them in this case!