Basics

Tactics

Glossary

Making Points

The object of backgammon is to race home first with all your pieces--an easy goal to understand. What's harder to appreciate is that players cannot expect to win the race unless they work toward intermediate goals along the way, such as making key points.

Just as Chess players cannot hope to checkmate the opponent's king without first developing pieces and controlling important squares, backgammon players need to build a position in which their checkers occupy points that will useful on offense and defense. The most important point to make is the opponent's 5-point, or golden point, which will provide an advanced anchor in the opponent's home board. Holding that point will make it difficult for the opponent to bear in safely, while also preventing the opponent from being able to close you out if you are hit. If you make this point, don't hurry to leave it--it's usually safe to keep checkers there for a long time. Holding the opponent's 4-point instead is a reasonably good alternative; holding the three point is less good, and the two-point is not worth making.

On your own side of the board, the most important to make is your 5-point (preventing the opponent from getting it), followed in descending order of value by your 7-point and 4-point. Making these points will begin to set up a prime that will keep the opponent's back checkers, plus any checkers you hit, from escaping easily.

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On the other hand, you shouldn't make your own 1-, 2-, and 3-points too early. Checkers on those points have more or less left the battle, and would be more useful elsewhere during the middle of the game.

When possible, try to make a series of adjacent points, which are harder to get past than the same number of points with gaps. If you can get a full prime of six points in a row, your opponent cannot pass until you break it down. Sometimes both players will form primes, and the battle will be won by whoever can maintain it longer. When you do have to break up a prime, start with the point farthest from home.

Slotting--moving a single checker to a point you hope to make--is often an acceptable risk, but usually not when it exposes your checker to a direct hit. Splitting your back checkers is a good idea early in the game, particularly when it allows you to slot the opponent's 5-point or 4-point. Exposing a checker to a direct hit in this case is worth the risk. If you are hit you haven't lost much ground, and it's too risky for the opponent to hit you unless he or she can do it without leaving a blot.

Hitting

Try to hit your opponent, unless it exposes you to a worse return hit, such as in your own inner board. The closer a checker is to being home, the greater the loss if it's hit; conversely, exposing checkers far from home risks little.

Avoid being hit. Try not to leave blots unless hitting them would be risky for the opponent. If forced to leave a blot, try to leave the opponent an indirect hit rather than a direct hit; otherwise, try to minimize the number of throws that will give the opponent a good hit, such as by keeping all your exposed checkers the same distance from opposing checkers.

In a "running game"--that is, when the game is turning into a straightforward race home--hit and avoid being hit, escape with your back men, bear in quickly, and bear off efficiently.

If you hold one or two points in your opponent's home board, you can play a "holding game," in which you wait for a chance to hit the opponent as he or she moves checkers closer to home.

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With at least two points in your opponent's home board, especially deep points that are close together, you can play a "back game" in which you try not to hit the opponent, and in fact hope to have your own checkers hit to slow down your own progress. Your strategy is to let the opponent build a prime, force the opponent to run out of good moves, and then hit the opponent's checkers after the opponent is forced to break up the prime. If your opponent adopts this strategy, your best counter is to avoid hitting any blots. In a back game, you want the opponent to run out of good moves before you do, so that the opponent's prime is also broken up by the time you need to break up yours.

When bearing off, try to move as many checkers as possible off the board each turn. Try to fill gaps in your checkers in order to maximize the number of future rolls that will allow you maximum bear-off.

When the opponent holds one of your inner board's points or has a checker on the bar, try to plan ahead so that you will not be forced to leave a blot if you should happen to throw doubles.