#Count the race
Every game is a race underneath. Your pip count is the total distance your checkers still have to travel: each checker counts the number of the point it stands on, and a checker on the bar counts 25. Both sides start at 167.
An average roll moves 8 and a sixth pips once doubles are counted four times, so a lead of 8 pips is about one roll. Early on, a small lead matters less than the position. Once the checkers have passed each other and there is no more contact, the race is all that is left, and the pip count tells you who is winning it. A rule of thumb for long races: a lead of about 8% of your own count is enough to double, and the opponent can still take up to a lead of about 12%.
The count also decides the plan. Ahead in the race, you want to disengage and run home. Behind, you want contact to last, because a hit is the only way a race you are losing can turn around.
#Make points
A point with two or more of your checkers on it is safe, blocks your opponent, and gives your other checkers somewhere to land. Making points, in the right places, is most of what good play in the opening and middle game is.
The points worth most are the ones in front of your opponent's back checkers:
- your 5-point, the best point on the board, in the middle of your home board and hard for the opponent to escape past;
- your 4-point and your bar point (your 7-point), which together with the 5-point and the 6-point you start with form a wall;
- in your opponent's home board, their 5-point (your 20-point) and 4-point, the best places for an anchor of your own.
The engine's own rollouts show how much a point is worth. Of the fifteen opening rolls, the four best are exactly the four that make a point: 3-1 makes the 5-point, 4-2 the 4-point, 6-1 the bar point and 5-3 the 3-point. Every roll is worked through in Opening moves.
#Blots and the odds of being hit
A single checker, a blot, can be hit, and a hit costs the pips that checker had travelled. Leaving a blot is not a mistake in itself: it is how points get made. What matters is how likely the hit is and how much it would cost.
The distance between an enemy checker and your blot decides the odds. Within six pips the blot is in direct range, where a single die can hit it. From seven pips it can be hit only by a combination of both dice, and the odds drop sharply. The chance of a hit, out of the 36 possible rolls, when nothing stands in between:
| Distance | Rolls that hit | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | 31% |
| 2 | 12 | 33% |
| 3 | 14 | 39% |
| 4 | 15 | 42% |
| 5 | 15 | 42% |
| 6 | 17 | 47% |
| 7 | 6 | 17% |
| 8 | 6 | 17% |
| 9 | 5 | 14% |
| 10 | 3 | 8% |
| 11 | 2 | 6% |
| 12 | 3 | 8% |
Three things follow. A blot six away is hit almost half the time, and one seven away one time in six. Points you hold between the enemy checker and the blot block some of the combinations, so the real odds are often lower than the table. And two blots are hit much more often than one, so when you must leave a shot, leave one, as far away as you can.
#Hit
Hitting sends a checker back to the start, costing your opponent the pips it had travelled, and uses up part of their next roll to come in from the bar. A hit in your own home board also costs them tempo: the whole roll may go on entering. So when the choice is between hitting and a quiet move, hitting is usually right, and hitting two checkers in one roll (a double hit) is often worth leaving a blot for.
#Build a prime
Six points in a row form a prime, a wall no checker can jump: a checker trapped behind it cannot move until the prime breaks. Five in a row is almost as strong. The strongest attacking plan in backgammon is to trap one or two of the opponent's back checkers behind a prime and then roll it forward into your home board, closing them out.
This is why the points next to each other are worth more together than apart, and why the bar point matters: it joins the points you already hold into a wall.
#Hold an anchor
A point you hold in your opponent's home board is an anchor. It gives a checker hit later somewhere safe to come in to, and it keeps a permanent threat of a shot at any blot the opponent leaves in front of it. The best anchors are on the opponent's 5-point and 4-point (your 20-point and 21-point). Deeper anchors, on their 1-point or 2-point, are easier to keep but get behind the play.
#Choose a game plan
Most positions belong to one of a few kinds, and the plan follows from the kind:
- a running game: you are ahead in the race, so you escape your back checkers and bring everything home safely;
- a holding game: behind in the race, you keep an anchor and wait for a shot as the opponent comes home;
- a priming game: you build a wall and trap the opponent's back checkers behind it;
- a blitz: you attack every checker the opponent has in your home board, hitting and making points to close them out;
- a back game: far behind, you hold two anchors in the opponent's board and wait for a late shot.
A blitz or a priming game that succeeds ends in a closeout: every point of your home board made and an opposing checker on the bar with no way in.
HedgeHog's analysis sorts every position into classes along these lines (race, holding, prime, blitz, backgame and more), and the glossary says what each one is.
#Keep your timing
Timing is whether you can keep your good points while you wait for what you need. A player who holds an anchor but has no other checkers left to move will have to break the points in their home board, roll after roll, and by the time the shot comes there may be no board left to contain the hit checker. Counting how many pips you can spare before your position collapses is what separates a holding game that works from one that does not. The glossary has more.
#Bear off safely
Once the race is on, bear off as many checkers as each roll allows, and fill the gaps in your home board so every number bears a checker off. While the opponent still has a checker back, safety comes first: clear the points furthest from home first, keep an even number of checkers on the points you are clearing, and avoid leaving a blot the anchor can hit.
#Mind the gammons
A gammon is worth two games, so the score of a game is not only who wins. When you have the opponent on the run, with checkers on the bar and a strong board, keep attacking: the gammon may be worth more than a safe single win. When you are the one being attacked, getting a checker off or out of trouble early can save the second point.
#Use the cube
All of the above is the checker play. The doubling cube multiplies what the game is worth, and knowing when to double, take or pass is worth more points than any single move. Start with The doubling cube.
#What next
The fastest way to get better is to find where your own games go wrong. See How to get better at backgammon.