The Dream Position and the Mountain

While we’re on the topic of canonical backgammon positions that every good player should know, let’s discuss a few more. The first is the Dream Position:

When closing out your opponent, you want your spare checkers to land on the 6-, 5-, and 4-pts. This will allow you to keep your board closed out for the longest amount of time while safely bearing off the most checkers.

While we’re at it, here’s the Mountain:

This is the safest position when bearing off against an ace-point anchor. I know it doesn’t look it since there are 5 total checkers on the 5- and 6-pts, but it’s true! If Gary has enough timing to hang out on the ace point and wait for a shot, we need to take long-term safety into greater consideration than just the immediate next roll.

Next lesson: Magriel’s theorem