Backgammon strategy

Your own five point blocks the enemy checker that has furthest to travel, and it is the hardest point for them to re-enter past. If an opening roll makes it, make it. Most of the standard opening plays are arguments about how close you can get to it.

Of the 36 dice combinations, a blot six pips away is hit by 17 of them, one seven away by 6, and one eleven away by only 2 — the single roll of five-six, either way round. You will often have to leave something; leaving the one that is hit least is a decision available every turn, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement.

Count the pips both sides need. If you are ahead, break contact and run — every exchange is a chance for the position to turn. If you are behind, keep checkers back and keep points made; you cannot win a race you are losing, so you need them to make a mistake and they need a board to make it on.

The best double is one your opponent takes and should not have, or takes and later regrets. Wait until the position is overwhelming and they simply drop, and you have won one point instead of two. Cube errors cost more over a match than checker errors, and they are the ones nobody notices.

Six consecutive made points cannot be jumped by any die. Building towards one is usually worth more than a speculative hit that breaks your structure — a checker trapped behind a prime is out of the game, and a checker you hit is only briefly behind.

At 4-away 2-away the trailer doubles far more freely, because a lost double costs less than the game it might win. After the Crawford game the leader can be doubled for free, which is why the trailer plays the Crawford game itself for position. This is the part of backgammon that looks like a different game, and it is where matches are actually won.