Backgammon

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As we have dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of talent and pure luck. The goal is to shift your chips safely around the game board to your inside board while at the same time your opponent shifts their chips toward their home board in the opposite direction. With opposing player checkers heading in opposite directions there is bound to be conflict and the requirement for specific tactics at specific instances. Here are the two final Backgammon techniques to complete your game.

The Priming Game Plan

If the goal of the blocking tactic is to slow down the opponent to move her checkers, the Priming Game strategy is to absolutely block any movement of the opponent by constructing a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s pieces will either get bumped, or end up in a bad position if she at all tries to escape the wall. The ambush of the prime can be setup anywhere between point 2 and point 11 in your half of the board. Once you’ve successfully built the prime to prevent the movement of your competitor, the competitor doesn’t even get a chance to toss the dice, that means you move your pieces and roll the dice again. You will be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Technique

The goals of the Back Game tactic and the Blocking Game strategy are similar – to hurt your competitor’s positions hoping to better your chances of winning, but the Back Game plan utilizes different tactics to do that. The Back Game plan is often utilized when you are far behind your opponent. To participate in Backgammon with this plan, you have to hold two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single checker) late in the game. This plan is more complex than others to play in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your chips and how the checkers are moved is partially the outcome of the dice toss.