One of the main goals in a game of backgammon is to safety your backcheckers. Those are the two little guys that start every game stranded on your 24-pt:
These checkers have the farthest to go, and to make matters worse, your opponent Gary is doing everything in his power to keep them in his homeboard.
Upon hearing this, your first instinct might be to use any non-constructive roll you can to get your backcheckers moving ASAP. For many rolls, this is the exact right approach: if you roll a 65, you should definitely make what’s called the lover’s leap and run 24/13; if you roll 64, it’s not always a bad idea to do something similar with 24/14.
But what happens if you roll a small number? Say you roll 21. You can’t make any points with that roll… could it hurt to get one of your backcheckers started on their journey, playing 24/21?
It turns out that there is some danger to making a play like this, which is the focus of today’s lesson. The higher points in your Gary’s homeboard (that is, his 5 and 4 points) are very dangerous, and any blots left there are likely to get hit. Why is that? Gary’s 5- and 4-pts (your 20- and 21-pts) are the next points that he would like to make! They are closest to the 6-pt, so would be part any reasonable prime in his homeboard. If you manage to make one of those points yourself, he won’t be able to; therefore, he’ll do everything in his power to knock you off of it. A good player would use nearly any ace they roll to hit you loose on the 5-pt or 4-pts. Even if he rolls 62, 63, 54 or 53, he’ll play 13/5* (which looks like 12/20* from our perspective) or 13/4* to do it.
Frankly, getting hit doesn’t cost you much in the race if the checker getting hit is already in your opponent’s homeboard. However, sometimes it’s crucial to avoid being on the bar. Another concrete position that illustrates the relative dangers of the points in your opponent’s homeboard can be seen below:
These positions result from the following sequence of rolls:
- You open with 52: 24/22, 13/8
- Gary replies with 55: 6/1*(2), 8/3*(2), putting both of your backcheckers on the bar.
Following this, on the left you rolled a 62 and entered one checker on the 23-pt and lost the rest of your roll. On the right, you rolled a 65 and entered one checker on the 20-pt.
These reference positions are very familiar to seasoned backgammon players. On the left hand side, with one of your checkers hidden on a lower point, Gary doesn’t quite have enough to double you comfortably. On the right hand side, with the lone checker on the 20-pt, he must! It is much too easy for Gary to pick up that checker, and in doing so he becomes a favorite to make an excellent point in his homeboard. With a 4-pt board, and with 2 checkers on the bar, suddenly you’re at an enormous risk of getting gammoned. Despite looking nearly identical, moving one checker into the higher points of your opponent’s homeboard may sufficiently increase the danger of the position to affect cube decisions. If only your checkers weren’t on the bar!
Further reading:
- A video from the Backgammon is Beautiful youtube channel on cube decisions following a double-5 blitz, where Dan Rovira discusses the effect of the location of the last checker on the cube decision.
Next lesson: Clear from the rear
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