Preclear

Sometimes we do things preemptively to avoid trouble later. This may involve something as simple as putting the toilet seat down before your wife gets within reach of a rolling pin, or spitting out the cigarette after reading the warning and looking at the picture of the diseased lung that is included with the cancer enabling product. In Backgammon players can avoid some trouble later in the game by employing an effective Preclear strategy.

Preclearing is the simple act of moving the checkers from the high points on your home board to a place where you won't need a five or six to get bear the checkers off. There is a two-fold purpose to this act. First of all, if your opponent has anchors deep in your territory, checkers on your high points make them potential targets of a hit. Ideally you want your checkers to be behind the anchor so that they are safe. Nothing is more annoying during a game than being in the act of bearing your checkers off and your opponent hits you. In many cases, this is a recipe for defeat.

You will also want to preclear the checkers from the high points so that if you and your opponent have filled your home boards at approximately the same time, you can bear off faster. In a perfect world you want checkers to be taken off the board on every roll. If you have vacated the high points, this is more possible.