Don’t bury checkers

You only start with 15 checkers. If you ever would like the option to build a 6-prime, you can’t afford to waste that many.

What does “wasting” a checker look like in backgammon? This question has had many different answers over the years. In the 1970s and 80s, when priming game plans were gaining popularity and “pure” play was seen as the most effective game plan, it was considered wasteful to play any checker too far from your prime. It was considered wasteful to make the 2-pt on an opening 64 roll. Even worse, if any checker was played behind all of the opponent’s checkers, it was called “buried” or “killed.” The worst sin of all would be playing checkers to the ace-point and covering them.

The modern game has a little more nuanced answer. Sure, it is usually wasteful to play checkers behind an opponent, but there are often good reasons to do so. Making the ace-point is often crucial to a successful blitz, for example.

These days, burying a checker means effectively putting it out of the game for good. Consider the following position:

You rolled a 52, and probably want to anchor up with the 2 (24/22), but you don’t have any great 5s to play. The safest 5 would be one that leaves no shots, something like 6/1. This play buries the 6-pt checker that we play — it’s not contributing to blocking the opponent or adding to the board strength. It will just sit atop the other 2 checkers on the ace-point, trapped there for eternity until we reset the checkers for the next game! Viewed in this lens, it’s quite obvious what is wasteful about this play. A better 5 in this position is 8/3, which has some upside, including unstacking the 8-pt, forcing white to break their anchor if they hit, and the chance to strengthen our board if missed. Despite leaving direct shots, and playing loose, it’s much preferred to burying a checker this early in the game.

Below is a more subtle example of burying a checker:

Here, the safest play is 8/3*/2, which has the benefit of putting one of Gary’s checkers on the roof. Maybe he’ll dance, who knows! The problem with this play is that a third checker on the 2-pt will have nowhere to go. It can only move if you roll a 1, and the only place it can go to is the ace-point, which isn’t really a dream destination for any of your checkers at this early stage of the game. There’s a special name for this kind of checker: a dilly builder, because the only point it can “build” is the ace-point, which would be foolish indeed.

Here, a much better play is to split the backcheckers, 24/18. Gary has split his checkers, and is gunning for an advanced anchor, so we should try and get one too.

Further reading:

• Backgammon efficiency, by Marc Olsen