The Essential Basics of Backgammon Tactics – Part Two
Posted in Backgammon on 05/31/2026 09:25 pm by Lillie
As we have dicussed in the last article, Backgammon is a casino game of ability and good luck. The goal is to shift your chips safely around the game board to your inner board and at the same time your opposing player moves their pieces toward their home board in the opposite direction. With opposing player checkers heading in opposing directions there is going to be conflict and the need for specific strategies at specific times. Here are the last two Backgammon strategies to complete your game.
The Priming Game Strategy
If the purpose of the blocking tactic is to hamper the opponents ability to shift their checkers, the Priming Game strategy is to absolutely stop any activity of the opponent by building a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s pieces will either get bumped, or result a damaged position if she at all tries to leave the wall. The ambush of the prime can be setup anywhere between point two and point 11 in your half of the board. After you’ve successfully constructed the prime to stop the activity of the opponent, the competitor does not even get to toss the dice, and you shift your checkers and toss the dice again. You’ll be a winner for sure.
The Back Game Plan
The objectives of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game strategy are similar – to harm your opponent’s positions hoping to boost your odds of winning, but the Back Game plan uses different tactics to achieve that. The Back Game technique is generally used when you’re far behind your competitor. To compete in Backgammon with this technique, you have to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This tactic is more complex than others to employ in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your checkers and how the chips are relocated is partly the outcome of the dice toss.