Blitz attacks

Possibly the most exciting game plan is that of the blitz attack. When blitzing an opponent, you are endlessly hitting their checkers, putting them on the roof and taking away all of their initiative in the hopes of closing out your board. It’s a high-risk high-reward game plan, which, when successful, results in many gammons. You typically pursue a blitz attack when you have many inner board points made and many spare checkers in the zone. Let’s walk through a game to see how one develops.

After securing an opening roll of 52, your opponent Gary played 52: 24/22, 13/8. You luckily rolled a 55 in response:

You play 55:6/1*(2), 8/3*(2), making a 3-pt board and attacking both of Gary’s checkers. Gary is scrambling to get back on the board, and rolls a 53, entering with a single checker on your 5-pt. The board now looks like this:

Those of you following the course diligently might recognize this common sequence from the “Danger of higher points” article. You double and Gary takes.

Next, it’s your turn to roll a 53. The best play here by a mile is to hit loose, 13/5*:

This play goes against so much conventional wisdom — you’re playing loose in your homeboard, for one — but it also puts a second checker on the bar. Doing so works somewhat to reduce the number of shots Gary can hit. For example, he can only hit your blot on the 5-pt with direct 5s, and can’t play 32 or 41 since he needs to enter both checkers. This corresponds to a simple direct shot (11 numbers), meaning you are a favorite to be missed. Also, any blots that are outside of your homeboard are safe, unless Gary rolls a specific double (for example, a 44 can hit your blot on the 8-pt.) On your next turn, you can cover using any ace or 3, so you are also a favorite to cover. In the worst case scenario where you are hit, Gary still has a lot of work to do to save his game.

This is what the game usually looks like a few rolls later, provided that Gary never got a chance to anchor his backcheckers:

You’ve made another point and are poised to make another. Gary has managed to send back a third checker of yours, but was also forced to unstack a vulnerable blot in the meantime. Gary can only enter with a 2 or a 4, and can only cover his blot with a 3 or a 5, giving him only 8 or so total numbers to cover. Every other number leaves him vulnerable to attack, possibly with up to 3 checkers in the air.

A few rolls later, if the blitz attack has been successful, this is what the board will look like:

Gary has been closed out with 3 checkers on the bar. Almost all of his checkers are still in their starting positions. This makes you a 95% favorite to win the game with a gammon, worth 4 points total with the cube turned.

This is just an example of a blitz for when you have a favorable sequence to start the game, but often a roll will appear in the midgame that should cause you to rethink your game plan. A beautiful example of this can be found in What’s your game plan, by Mary Hickey and Marty Storer:

With a 33, you can easily complete a 6-prime by playing 13/7(2). As we discussed in the last lesson, 6-primes win games. However, the alternative blitzing play, 8/2*(2), is the preferred play here. With a 5-point board, Gary may dance for a few turns, and this blitzing play will prevent him from making a second anchor. And as we have seen, the blitzing play will win way more gammons. It turns out that converting a priming game to a blitzing game is pretty thematic, since you typically have so many checkers available to attack, and potential gammon wins are sometimes just too valuable to pass up.

Further reading:

• A video that I’ve shared before of Mochy losing by a backgammon due to a successful blitz attack.

Next lesson: Backgames