The Essential Basics of Backgammon Strategies – Part Two

As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a game of talent and pure luck. The goal is to shift your pieces carefully around the board to your home board and at the same time your opposing player shifts their checkers toward their inside board in the opposite direction. With competing player chips moving in opposite directions there is bound to be conflict and the need for particular techniques at particular instances. Here are the 2 final Backgammon strategies to finish off your game.

The Priming Game Strategy

If the purpose of the blocking strategy is to hamper the opponents ability to shift their chips, the Priming Game strategy is to absolutely stop any activity of the opposing player by constructing a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The opponent’s chips will either get hit, or end up in a bad position if he ever tries to leave the wall. The trap of the prime can be built anywhere between point 2 and point 11 in your board. Once you’ve successfully assembled the prime to block the movement of the competitor, your competitor doesn’t even get to toss the dice, and you move your pieces and toss the dice yet again. You will win the game for sure.

The Back Game Plan

The goals of the Back Game technique and the Blocking Game tactic are similar – to harm your opponent’s positions in hope to boost your chances of succeeding, however the Back Game strategy uses seperate techniques to achieve that. The Back Game tactic is often used when you are far behind your competitor. To compete in Backgammon with this tactic, you have to control 2 or more points in table, and to hit a blot late in the game. This strategy is more difficult than others to employ in Backgammon seeing as it requires careful movement of your checkers and how the checkers are relocated is partly the result of the dice toss.