Archive for August 9th, 2019

Backgammon – Three Basic Techniques

[ English ]

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

The Blockade

This involves creating a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you might manage, to barricade in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most suitable procedure at the begining of the match. You can build the wall anyplace within your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the game progresses.

The Blitz

This is composed of locking your home board as fast as possible while keeping your opposer on the bar. i.e., if your opposer rolls an early two and moves one checker from your 1-point to your three-point and you then toss a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one eight/three 8/3. Your opposer is then in serious calamity due to the fact that they have two pieces on the bar and you have locked half your inner board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have two or higher anchors in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor is a point filled by at least two of your checkers.) It needs to be employed when you are significantly behind as this action greatly improves your opportunities. The better locations for anchors are near your opponent’s lower points and either on abutting points or with a single point in between. Timing is essential for an effectual backgame: besides, there’s no reason having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own home board if you are then forced to break up this straight away, while your opponent is shifting their pieces home, seeing that you do not have other spare pieces to shift! In this case, it’s more favorable to have pieces on the bar so that you can maintain your position up until your opponent provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a wonderful idea to attempt and get your competitor to hit them in this case!