Backgammon strategy: the 5 game plans and when to use them

After the opening moves, the game quickly becomes too varied to memorize. What stays the same is the handful of plans strong players choose from. Each one has a goal, a moment when it fits, and a way it can go wrong.

You don't pick a plan before the game starts. The dice and the board decide which ones are available, and a game often moves from one plan to another: an attack that runs out of steam becomes a priming game, a holding game that hits a shot can turn into an attack, and almost every game ends in a race.

Before you move, ask yourself two questions. Together they point to the right plan in most positions.

1. Who is ahead in the race?

Your pip count is the total distance your checkers still have to travel: add up the point number of each checker. Both players start at 167. The lower count is ahead in the race, and since an average roll moves 8⅙ pips (see the 36 rolls), a lead of about 8 pips is worth roughly one roll.

If you're clearly ahead, you want fewer complications: safe points, no unnecessary blots and, sooner or later, a pure race. If you're behind, the race is a losing proposition, and you want contact: an anchor to wait on, a prime to block with, or blots to attack.

2. Who has the stronger board?

Look at both home boards and at the blots on each side. The player with more points made in their home board wins more of the hitting exchanges, because the other side comes in from the bar less often (see entering from the bar). A strong board makes attacking attractive; a weak one makes hitting loose blots risky, because a return hit costs you more than it costs your opponent.

Put the two answers together: ahead in the race with a safe position, run; ahead in structure, prime or attack; behind in the race, hold an anchor and wait for a shot. The next five sections take each plan in turn.

The simplest plan: when you're ahead in the race, get all your checkers home and bear off before your opponent does. Every exchange of hits is a chance for your opponent to catch up, so your goal is to break contact cleanly.

• Bring your back checkers out early, while your opponent's position is still loose. With an open path, a 6-5 runs a back checker from your 24-point all the way to your midpoint.
• Don't leave shots on the way home if a safe play does nearly as well. A direct shot is hit by 11 to 17 rolls out of 36; an indirect one by 6 or fewer (the shot chart).
• Once contact is broken, it's a pure race: bring checkers into your home board efficiently, spread them over several points and avoid wastage.

Racing has its own cube rules, based on the pip count: see cube decisions in a race. And when it's time to take your checkers off, our bear-off odds show why where your checkers stand matters as much as how many pips are left.

A prime is a row of consecutive points. Checkers trapped behind it can only get past by jumping over it, and since one die moves at most 6 pips, a full prime of six points can't be jumped at all. The priming game is the plan built on that fact: trap one or more of your opponent's back checkers, then keep them there.

How to build a prime

The points that matter are the ones right in front of your opponent's back checkers: your 4-point, your 5-point, your 6-point, your bar point (7) and your 8-point. That's why the three best opening rolls each make one of them: 3-1 makes the 5-point, 4-2 the 4-point and 6-1 the bar point. Keep builders, spare checkers a few pips behind the point you want, so that many rolls make the next one.

How long does a prime need to be?

Every extra point in the wall takes away escaping rolls. The chart below counts them for one checker stuck behind primes of different lengths, with open points beyond the prime.

The chart holds a lesson for both sides. A five-point prime is already a near-wall. And a trapped checker is better off right up against the prime than a little further back: directly behind a five-point prime, any 6 escapes (11 rolls); with one empty point in between, only 2 rolls get out.

Walking the prime home

A prime is only useful while it holds, and a prime far from home won't hold forever. The technique is to roll the prime forward: make the point just in front of it, then release the point at its back, so the wall moves step by step toward your home board with the trapped checker still behind it. That takes timing: enough spare checkers and spare pips to play elsewhere, so you aren't forced to break the wall before your opponent has to break their position.

For building, walking, timing, escaping and the cube in priming games, see the full guide to backgammon priming.

A blitz is a direct assault: you hit your opponent's checkers in your home board again and again while making points there, until your board is closed with their checkers on the bar. It's the plan that wins the most gammons, and also the one that collapses fastest when it fails.

When to blitz

• Your opponent has blots in your home board or a checker on the bar, and no anchor to fall back on.
• You have builders aimed at your home board, so most rolls hit or make a point.
• Your home board is already stronger than theirs, so their return hits from the bar are less dangerous.

Why points made matter so much

Each point you make in your home board takes rolls away from your opponent's entering chances. Against four points made, one checker on the bar comes in with 20 rolls out of 36; against five, only 11; against a closed board, never. With two checkers on the bar against four points made, both come in with only 4 rolls out of 36 (the full charts are in entering from the bar). That's why hitting a second checker is often the key move of a blitz.

For when to start a blitz, how to sustain it, close out the board, defend, and the cube in attacking games, see the full guide to backgammon blitz.

The holding game is the plan for when you're behind in the race but not in trouble: you keep an anchor, a point made in your opponent's home board, and wait for a shot as their checkers come home past it.

• Choose an advanced anchor. Your opponent's 5-point (your 20-point) or 4-point (your 21-point), or their bar point (your 18-point). An anchor further forward is harder to prime and sees more of the checkers your opponent has to bring home. More in our guide to anchors.
• Keep your board in shape. A shot is only worth hitting if you can contain the checker you hit, so keep building your own home board while you wait.
• Don't give up the anchor too soon. Running from it while you're still behind in the race usually trades a good holding game for a losing race.

A holding game rarely wins quickly. Its strength is that it keeps you in the game: even when the race is lost, a single late hit can turn things around.

For when to choose a holding game, how to play it, when to break and run, how to defend, and the cube, see the full guide to the backgammon holding game.

A back game is the deeper version of the holding game, for a position that has fallen far behind in the race: you hold two anchors in your opponent's home board and wait for a shot late in the game, then try to contain the checker you hit.

It's a plan you fall into, not one you aim for. A back game needs timing: while you wait, your other checkers have to keep moving, and if you run out of spare moves, you're forced to crush your own home board before the shot comes. And when it fails, it often fails badly: a back game carries a real risk of losing a gammon, or even a backgammon.

For which anchors to hold, how timing works, when to hit, how to save the gammon, how to defend against one, and the cube, see the full guide to the backgammon back game.

Most games go through more than one plan. The skill is noticing when the plan you're on has stopped working, and choosing the next one before your position decides for you.

• Blitz to priming: your opponent anchored, so you stop hitting loose and start building the wall in front of their anchor.
• Holding to attack: your anchor hit a shot. Now your opponent is on the bar and you may be the one with the stronger board: attack or prime the checker you hit.
• Priming to running: the trapped checker escaped or the prime broke. If you're ahead in the race, simplify and race, unless you can still hit the escaped checker: that is often stronger.
• Running to holding: you rolled badly and fell behind in the race. Keep the anchor you have rather than running into a race you're losing.

Each switch starts with the same two questions: who's ahead in the race, and who has the stronger board? Ask them again whenever a hit, a big double or an escape changes the position.

Whatever the plan, a few habits keep paying off. These are the ones that help beginners most:

• Count the race before you choose between running and fighting.
• Make points, not blots. Two checkers on a point can't be hit and block your opponent; your 5-point first, then your 4-point and bar point.
• Hit when it gains something: tempo, a key point, or a checker your opponent needed. Hitting loose in your home board against a stronger board can backfire.
• Anchor when you're under attack. An advanced anchor tends to keep your back checkers safe for the rest of the game.
• When you must leave a shot, leave the smallest one. Prefer indirect shots (7 pips or more away) to direct ones (shot chart).
• Keep your position flexible. Spread builders over several points rather than stacking them on one.
• Watch your timing. Don't break your best points while your opponent can still wait.
• Think about gammons. Attack harder when a gammon is on offer; when you're losing badly, play to get a checker off.

For the errors that cost new players the most, see common beginner mistakes in our rules guide, and if a term is new to you, the backgammon glossary explains it.

Reading about game plans helps you recognize them; playing them is what builds judgment. Three habits make the difference:

• Name your plan before each move. "I'm racing", "I'm priming their back checker": it keeps your moves consistent.
• Review the turning points. After a game, look for the moment the plan changed: a hit, an escape, an anchor. Was your switch on time?
• Practice one plan at a time. Play a few games focused on building primes, then a few focused on keeping your anchor.