In very simple terms, there are three chief strategies employed. You want to be agile enough to hop between strategies quickly as the action of the game unfolds.
The Blockade
This consists of creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at a minimum as thick as you can manage, to block in the opponent’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most acceptable strategy at the begining of the game. You can create the wall anywhere inbetween your 11-point and your two-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the game continues.
The Blitz
This consists of closing your home board as fast as possible while keeping your challenger on the bar. e.g., if your challenger rolls an early 2 and moves one checker from your one-point to your 3-point and you then toss a five-five, you are able to play six/one 6/1 8/3 8/3. Your challenger is now in big-time calamity due to the fact that they have 2 pieces on the bar and you have locked half your inside board!
The Backgame
This strategy is where you have two or higher checkers in your competitor’s inner board. (An anchor spot is a position consisting of at a minimum two of your checkers.) It must be employed when you are extremely behind as this plan much improves your opportunities. The better locations for anchor spots are near your competitor’s lower points and either on adjacent points or with a single point separating them. Timing is integral for a competent backgame: at the end of the day, there is no point having two nice anchors and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then required to dismantle this right away, while your opposer is shifting their checkers home, considering that you don’t have any other spare pieces to shift! In this case, it is more favorable to have pieces on the bar so that you might maintain your position until your competitor gives you an opportunity to hit, so it will be a great idea to try and get your opponent to hit them in this case!
This entry was posted on January 11, 2016, 9:21 am and is filed under Backgammon. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.