Backgammon – 3 General Schemes
In very simple terms, there are three chief game plans employed. You must be agile enough to hop between techniques almost instantly as the action of the game unfolds.
The Blockade
This involves creating a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at a minimum as thick as you can manage, to lock in the competitor’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most adequate procedure at the start of the game. You can create the wall anyplace within your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shift it into your home board as the game continues.
The Blitz
This involves locking your home board as quick as possible while keeping your opposer on the bar. e.g., if your opposer rolls an early 2 and shifts one checker from your 1-point to your three-point and you then roll a 5-5, you are able to play 6/1 six/one 8/3 eight/three. Your opposer is now in serious calamity because they have two pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inside board!
The Backgame
This plan is where you have 2 or higher anchors in your competitor’s inner board. (An anchor is a position consisting of at least two of your checkers.) It must be played when you are significantly behind as it greatly improves your chances. The strongest places for anchors are towards your opponent’s smaller points and either on adjoining points or with a single point in between. Timing is integral for a competent backgame: besides, there’s no point having two nice anchors and a solid wall in your own home board if you are then required to break apart this straight away, while your challenger is getting their checkers home, taking into account that you do not have any other extra checkers to move! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you might maintain your position until your challenger provides you a chance to hit, so it can be an excellent idea to attempt and get your opponent to hit them in this situation!