Backgammon Strategy
Backgammon winners need good strategy.
Learning backgammon strategy is the most important part of
becoming a winner. If you're playing for fun, you might just enjoy rolling the dice to see where they take you, but if you're playing for real money, you're sure to want to do better.
At EASYBackgammon, we've organized some quick tips to get you started. While they won't make you an
instant winner, they'll help you get on the road to being a backgammon champion.
Establish anchors in your opponents home board.
A prime is six points in a row. If you hold six points in a row, your opponent cannot cross your prime,
while you have full access to the area. A prime in a players home board is known as a closed board, since
his opponent cannot enter from the bar; all the points are closed. If you've closed your board, your opponent cannot play until you open it.
Distribute your pieces evenly
Distribute your backgammon pieces to be within six pips of one another, so there is always a piece available to cover a man or to provide a resting place for a runner. You have more flexibility and it's easier to protect your position if you have fewer men on a point. You should never have more than six men on a point.
Blots
Sometimes you have to leave a blot, but blots on your lower number points can cost you a lot in the racing stage of the game. Try to leave blots only when it won't affect your game much. And always calculate the odds of being hit in the next turn.
More importantly, never be tempted to hit your opponent's blots when it's not to your advantage. If you will be left open or your opponent will be able to block you, don't hit them. A bad hit can cost you your game.
Opening Rolls and Opening Moves
As a newbie to backgammon, youll be happy to know that some moves are considered the only right thing to do. If you ignore this advice, you are reducing your chances of success and wont be able to call yourself unlucky! Experts throughout the ages have analyzed games to see what the best moves are to any given opening roll.
The most important point to make is whats known as the golden point; i.e., your twenty-point (i.e., your opponent's five-point). This point will provide you with an excellent anchor and make your opponents life difficult when he wants to reenter from the bar. So an opening roll of 3-1 should make you smile. Opening rolls of 6-1 and 4-2 will allow you to make the 7 and 4 points.
Move two men from your midpoint, your 13-point (i.e., your opponent's 12-point), when you roll 5-4, 4-3, 5-2, 5-3, or 3-2. Another possibility is with 3-2, 4-3, or 5-4, use one of the numbers to slot your opponent and with the other number move one checker from your midpoint. A different possibility for 5-4 is to move one of the back men nine.
With a roll of 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, or 6-2, you should either move one back man using both numbers, or move one back man six and another from the midpoint. Experts disagree somewhat on what to do with 6-2, however; many would prefer to move a piece from the midpoint eight in order to slot the 5-point.
With 4-1, 2-1, 5-1, split the back men by moving one of them one point, and move a checker from the midpoint using the other number; or play the one to slot the 5-point and move a checker from your midpoint.
If your opponent has the first turn and you roll doubles on your first roll, heres what you should do:
6-6: Make both bar points (your and your opponent's 7-points).
5-5: Move two men from your midpoint to your 3-point.
4-4: Move your back men one point each to make your opponent's five-point as an anchor, then make your 9-point.
3-3: Move your back checkers once each to make your opponent's 4-point, then make your own 5-point.
2-2: Move your back checkers twice each to make your opponent's five-point as an anchor.
1-1: Make your 5- and 7-points.
As you become more experienced in the game of backgammon, you will probably find yourself making your own mistakes, as you do in real life. But remember, studying the masters will reduce your mistakes to a minimum, and maybe someday you will write the book on backgammon strategy!
Dice Theory
Backgammon isn't exactly the same as craps. While there are dice, and the dice do affect the game, the better a player is, the more he or she can do with each roll, regardless of what shows on the dice.
In live backgammon, there are many requirements for dice, and professional players use precision dice to insure that each roll is fair.
When you're playing online backgammon, the online backgammon site will have a certificate for their random number generator, stating that the rolls of the dice are fully random and unpredictable. There are a variety of types of random number generators, and each online backgammon provider uses their own system.
So what does this mean? It means that you never know what roll will come up next. So how are you supposed to play being fully aware that you never know what you might get? Easily. You need to use statistics to find out what the most likely options for the next roll are, and act accordingly.
There are only 36 possible combinations (six ways for the first die to land and six ways for the second die to land, and any combination of the two). Understanding the chances of throwing a particular combination of pips will help you decide how risky a move might be.
An example: If you want to choose between two moves, one in which you will leave a blot that is one point away from your opponent, and another move which will leave a blot nine points away from your opponent, how do you choose which is the least risky move? Using the theory of probability, you can calculate the chance that he will hit either of these blots on the next roll.
If your opponent throws any combination of dice that show a 1, he will be able to hit a blot which is one point away. There are 11 such possible rolls; 1-1 (only one combination of the dice produces 1-1), a 1 on the first die, and any other number on the second die: 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, an/or a 1 on the second die and any other number on the first die: 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1. That makes the probability of getting hit 11 out of 36 possible rolls.
If, on the other hand, your other possible move would leave a blot nine points away from your opponent, he would have to roll one of the following combinations: 4-5, 5-4, 3-6, or 6-3. The probability of this event is 4 out of 36, a lower chance of being hit. Now it is clear which is the less risky move, right?
