Playing loose 4: Two on the bar is better by far

For the last lesson in the module, we’re going to learn another beloved backgammon proverb: Two on the bar is better by far. The idea is that it is extremely powerful to hit two checkers — way better than hitting only one checker, and better than many alternative plays. In the current context, it often justifies a loose hit!

Before examining some positions, it’s worth dwelling on where this rule comes from, which will help us appreciate its true power. In a previous lesson on Board strength, we illustrated how the number of dancing numbers increases with number of inner-board points might. Let’s add the dancing numbers when our opponent has 2 checkers on the bar to this plot:

As expected, the number of dancing rolls increases, but the difference is quite substantial! I think naively, one would expect a double hit to be twice as good as a single hit, but the true magnitude is well beyond that: it turns out that a second checker on the bar adds more dancing numbers than adding 2 home board points. With only a 2-pt board, our opponent will dance over half the time with 2 on the bar. It would otherwise take a 5-pt board to reach that level of boogie.

Let’s see what this advantage translates into over the board. In our first position, we rolled 31 in the early game:

We’ve rolled the perfect number to just make the 5 point.¹ We could also anchor up (24/21, 22/21). Personally, I think the most natural play would be to safety the checker in the outfield, something like (16/13, 8/7*). Given the options, nothing in this position screams a loose hit. However, here, the best play is the double-hitting play: 8/7*/4*.

If you’ve gotten this far in the course, some alarm bells should be going off in your head at the moment. We are opting to forego 2 very strong points; we are slotting an impure point (so, not the open 5-pt but the 4-pt) in our homeboard; additionally, a loose hit here does nothing about the blots strewn around the board (on the 24-pt, the 22-pt, and 16-pt)… it even adds more blots to the mix! Despite these considerations, the double-hit is the strongest play, albeit by a small margin in this case.

A counter to the discussion points above is that the extra blots are not actually in that much danger. With 2 checkers on the bar, the only checker of ours that can realistically be hit is the blot on the 4-pt, with only 12 shots (direct 4s or 22). All other blots are beyond an indirect shot away, only giving Gary doubles to hit them. (For example, 33 would allow Gary to enter both checkers on the bar and to hit on his 3-pt.) Despite being extremely vulnerable-looking, the position as a whole is actually fairly safe. For now.

Secondly, as discussed above, the tempo gained by a double hit is immense. If we aren’t hit off the bar, which is what usually happens, we will have at least a roll to cover our blots, or to hit again. We’ve completely robbed our opponent of any initiative.

Our next position sets up different dilemmas, with a similar outcome:

With the 32 we rolled, we can clean up quite nicely by making the bar-pt (10/7, 9/7). However, since two on the bar is better by far, we put two on the roof by playing 20/18*, 6/3*. Though we don’t have the option to make the 5-pt, look at all of the rules we are breaking: our opponent has a stronger board than us, so we should be playing more safely; we are slotting a deeper impure point (this time the 3-pt!); we are breaking an anchor, specifically the kirin point; and we are leaving 5 blots around the board².

But viewed from the lens described above, this play starts to make a bit more sense. A double hit temporarily upgrades our 1-point board to something between a 3-point and 4-point board. For at least the next roll, our board is stronger than our opponent’s. And with 10 checkers in the zone, from here we can attempt to carry out a blitz attack.

This lesson ends our module on intermediate checker play. Once you’ve mastered the content in this chapter, you can consider yourself an advanced player when it comes to checker play. However, there’s a second side to a backgammon match that we have so far neglected — the doubling cube! In the next module, we will start getting our taste for the cube and will learn some rules of thumb on how to handle it.

Further reading:

• The Jump, a video from the Backgammon Skillset Youtube channel on this topic.

1. Actually, in this particular position, over the board I would continue to recommend to make the 5-pt. It turns out to be a small error here, but in many variations of this position it is preferable to a double-hit. It would be a harmful habit to learn that a double-hit (temporary tempo) is more valuable than the 5-pt (a permanent asset). However, this position does an excellent job of demonstrating the considerable value of a double hit ↩︎
2. Let’s stress this for a second — we only own 15 checkers. That means a third of our checkers are vulnerable to attack! ↩︎

Next lesson: Doubling for beginners