Author: Orad Reshef

The first type of doubling position we will study is a straight racing position. You’ve broken contact with your opponent and now you’re both hoping to roll well and win outright. You can probably tell if you are leading just by looking at the board, but do you have enough to offer your opponent the…

The last game plan we will discuss is called a backgame. ….I don’t know where to start with these. They occur only 5% of the time, and are super challenging because their play is antithetical to typical forward-backgammon play. A backgame is like an extreme holding game. In a backgame, you’ve fallen so far behind…

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…

Priming game plans are the next category of backgammon game we will discuss. Here, you are aiming to build a 6-prime, which is a continuous stretch of 6 made points. These games are surprisingly tricky to play. A prototypical example of a priming play can be found below, lifted from Bill Robertie’s excellent 501 Essential…

If your opponent is succeeding with his racing game plan, then you need to give up on yours and start looking for a hit to catch up. This is the essence of the holding game. You are intentionally hanging back to maximize your contact, and you are trying to build out your homeboard to trap…

The first game plan is by far the simplest, and is the one most players unconsciously play when they first pick up the dice: the racing game plan. When you’re racing, you aren’t getting distracted by what your or your opponent’s boards look like, and you’re just trying to rush your checkers home ASAP. If…