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Opening Moves – Step One: What to know before you study strategy
The basic rules of backgammon are simple and not difficult to follow. I learnt to play as a child, rolling the dice and making whatever moves seemed appropriate to get me around the board quickest. |
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Backgammon: Skill or Luck?
Is Backgammon a mostly a game of chance or a game of skill? In any game that involves rolling dice, a certain amount of chance or luck comes into play. But how much? There may be no definitive answer to that question, but that doesn’t stop the debate. Some people claim backgammon is purely a game of chance. |
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What is Match Play in Backgammon?
I would say at least one-third of the homes in America have a backgammon set in the closet. This is approximately the same number of homes that tune into desperate housewives every week, do not consider cats a symbol of evil, and are still breathing asbestos insulation without their knowledge. |
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When to Double in Backgammon
Things just go better in twos. That is why Little Caesars has a little cartoon Roman running around in its commercials yelling “Pizza Pizza!” at anyone who even looks vaguely interested. Doublemint gum has employed twins who look the Olson sisters to stroll around town in matching outfits trying to convince us to chew gum. |
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Backgammon Strategy – Anchoring
We have all heard the term that the "best defense is a good offense". I’m not sure where this started but it sounds like something General Patton would have said. A good offense does not always include being on constant attack, but can occasionally involve simply holding your ground in a strategic spot, and getting in the way of the enemy. |
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Backgammon Strategy – Blocking
Creating a blockade has been the key to victory in a number of circumstances. The French fleet blocking off British ships during the American Revolutionary war is probably one of the main reasons we are a nation of coffee drinkers instead of a bunch of colonies who sip tea while daintily chewing on crumpets. During the Civil war, it was a blockade that kept supplies from the Confederate troops, and an army of gray coats out of Washington. |
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Bearing Off
Bearing-off is one of the most important roles in backgammon, if for no other reason than it comes into play in practically every game. There are two basic types of bearing-off: |
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Doubling
Even though the very name "Doubling Cube" sounds like a magic item that would not be out of place in Dungeons and Dragons, it is actually a variation of the standard six sided dice. The difference between the doubling cube and regular dice is the numbering. Instead of the traditional 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the numbers on a doubling cube are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. |
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Game Strategy Hints
The following suggestions and reminders concerning game strategy should prove helpful in the average game of Backgammon:
Play Safe: Never allow your adversary the opportunity to hit your pieces without good reason, as you could lose time in the running game... |
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Special Doubling Rules
While these special rules governing the use of the doubling cube are not used in tournament play, they are common when playing for money stakes. Because of this, it is up to the players to decide whether or not these rules apply if they are wagering on the game. |
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When to Beaver
In backgammon a beaver is an immediate redouble by a player who just accepted a double. A player who beavers turns the cube up one level and retains possession of the cube. A rule often used in money play (but never in match play) states that a player who accepts a double may immediately redouble (beaver) without giving up possession of the cube. |
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When to Accept a Double
A common mistake intermediate players make is to double with a position that definitely threatens to improve a good position, but is unlikely to become overpowering. For example: your opponent threatens to make either of two points, but he actually needs to make both of them to wipe you out. So take the cube. |
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Following an Early Blitz Attack
You've tried an early blitz, with 55. You made your ace, but your opponent entered and you have found yourself slugged in your outer board. Once you've made your own ace point, it is more or less pointless to later try to develop a back game. Timing will rarely be good with those 2 checkers on the ace all rested up and with no place to go. Having made the ace not only affects your timing but your flexibility as well. |
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The Blitz
In Backgammon a blitz is an aggressive stategy that is meant to close out a player's home board as fast as humanly possible while keeping their opponent on the bar. What makes this strategy effective is the fact that an opponent will have a lot of trouble re-entering from the bar, or finding an avenue of escape. |
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The Backgame
Most players have a lot to say about how to get the upper hand in a game. If most of us had a nickel for every bad system that is running around the casinos of Vegas, than we would be able to retire without ever playing a game in that city. But what do you do if you are losing? How do you get yourself out of a tough situation? When the topic is Backgammon, the best way to help yourself when you are in a position of weakness is play the "Backgame" strategy. |
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The Priming Game
The idea behind the priming game is that a good defense is the best offense. The crux of a priming strategy is to build a long wall (preferably six points long and anywhere between point 2 and point 11) and trap some of your opponent's checkers behind this wall. The value in this is obvious. The long wall of checkers will limit their movement. |
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What to Do on the First Roll
What to do on the first roll during a game of backgammon is the type of topic that can cause a raucous fist-fight in the most serene tea room. Even though everyone seems to have an opinion on this topic, there are some near absolute moves that experts and world champions agree are the best things to do with certain combinations of dice on your opening move. |
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Hitting
There is a sick sort of satisfaction that we get as backgammon players when we hit our opponent's checker and send it into the game's equivalent of a time out. To be effective though, there must be a method, not just madness, to the act of hitting in the game. |
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Using the Doubling Cube Against a Weaker Player
The doubling cube can be used as a very powerful weapon against your opponent, even a weak one. Some players think that this is overkill, but seeing as backgammon is not a game of pure skill, you want to eliminate opponents as quickly as possible to get rid of the possibility of luck coming to bear against you. |
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What to Do After the Crawford Game
As we all know, the Crawford game is a single game played without the doubling cube. This event occurs in match play when one player is a single point from victory. Once the Crawford game is done, the doubling cube is back in play. Now the question is what to do in that post Crawford game? |
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Doubling in a Pure Race Situation
When a game of backgammon comes down to a pure race - a game where hitting and blocking is no longer an issue and it is a race to see who can bear off their checkers the fastest - under what conditions should you double? |
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Preclear
Sometimes we do things preemptively to avoid trouble later. In Backgammon players can avoid some trouble later in the game by employing an effective Preclear strategy. |
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Backgammon Replies to Opening Moves
In the game of Backgammon, there are few moves as important as the opening moves - but there is one that can be as influential, and that is the reply. |
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Attacks of Opportunity
Backgammon is a race. Whoever gets their checkers off the board first wins. Because of this, you want to be moving your checkers to your home as quickly as possible, and you don't want to get hung up on trying to remove your opponent's checkers. However, you can do so, and you should, but only when the opportunity arises, and it is a beneficial one. |
