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. The first rule of hitting is to avoid doing it if hitting your opponent exposes you to a worse hit when their turn rolls around. For example: if hitting an opponent on your own inner board leaves a single checker unprotected, then the result of that hit may be catastrophic. You have done your opponent very little damage because the checker you hit on your inner board was far from home. So the hit was just a minor annoyance at best.

Secondly, your single checker is now not only vulnerable to a hit from the opponent's checker that might be sitting on your inner board, but when the checker that was hit comes back in, it may hit your checker. This would be a devastating blow to you. It takes that checker from your inner board. A piece that was once in position to bear off now has to make the long trek back to your inner board.

Now that we have covered not leaving yourself open, especially to hit an enemy checker that is on your inner board, the best time to hit the opponent is when they are on their inner board (or close to it). Not only will this take their piece out of a favorable position and force it to go all the way around the board again once it is brought back into play off the bar, but if you build a strong enough block on your inner board, your opponent may have difficulty even getting the checker off the bar. This will paralyze them and give you a number of unanswered turns until the rolls allow your opponent's checker to exit the bar. This is the purpose that hitting was invented for. Hitting just for the sake of hitting may, in the long run, hurt your game.