Checkers
Pieces racing for the far side, with captures that send a game in a new direction.
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Player’s guide
Backgammon Strategy Guide
Backgammon mixes luck and skill in a way few games do. The dice decide what you can do on a turn, but you decide how to use them, and over a series of games the better player wins most of the time. This guide covers where the game came from, the ideas that turn a roll into a good move, and how to get a game going here.
01 · Backgammon
Among the oldest games still played
Race games played with dice are some of the oldest games known. Boards for the Royal Game of Ur, found in Mesopotamian tombs, are about 4,500 years old. The Romans played tabula on a board of twenty-four points, very close to the modern layout, and its descendants were played across medieval Europe as tables.
The name backgammon appears in England in the seventeenth century. The last major change came in New York in the 1920s, when players added the doubling cube to raise the stakes during a game. Tournament players use it, but the game underneath is the same race you play here.
02 · Backgammon
Points, blots and primes
Two or more of your checkers on a point make it yours: your opponent cannot land there. A single checker is a blot, and an opponent who lands on it sends it to the bar to start its journey again. Most of backgammon is about making useful points while leaving as few blots as you can where they can be hit.
Points next to each other form a wall. Six in a row is a prime, and no checker behind it can get past until it breaks. You will rarely build a full prime, but four or five points in a row in front of an opponent’s back checkers is already a powerful trap.
Your five-point, the second point from the end of your home board, is the most valuable point to make early. It blocks your opponent and gives you a landing spot for the rest of the game.
03 · Backgammon
Opening rolls worth knowing
Some first rolls have one clearly best answer, and learning them saves a lot of thought. A 3-1 makes your five-point by moving one checker from your eight-point and one from your six-point. A 4-2 makes your four-point the same way. A 6-1 makes your bar point, the seven-point, by moving from your thirteen-point and eight-point.
With a 6-5, run one of your back checkers all the way to safety on your opponent’s side. For rolls that do not make a point, a common choice is to split your back checkers or bring a builder down from the midpoint, accepting a small risk of being hit to have more ways to make points next turn.
04 · Backgammon
Choose a game plan
After the opening, most games settle into one of a few plans, and knowing which one you are playing makes each move easier.
- Running game: you are ahead in the race, so get your back checkers home and avoid contact.
- Holding game: you are behind, so keep an anchor (two checkers) on a high point in your opponent’s home board and wait for a shot at a blot.
- Priming game: build a wall in front of your opponent’s back checkers and walk it home.
- Blitz: your opponent has checkers on the bar, so attack hard and close the points they need to come in.
05 · Backgammon
Count the race and bear off safely
The pip count is the total number of points all your checkers still have to travel. Comparing your count with your opponent’s tells you who is ahead in the race, and so which plan suits you. The average roll is worth a little over eight pips.
When you start bearing off while your opponent still holds a point in your home board, safety comes first. Clear points from the back, avoid leaving two blots, and accept taking fewer checkers off this turn if it means not getting hit.
06 · Backgammon
Playing backgammon on LarkSpark
You can start a game on the Backgammon page without an account. Play against one of eight bots, from Altair at level 1 to Orion at level 8. The lowest levels move at random, the middle levels play for hits and made points while avoiding blots, and the top two also weigh the race and how exposed each position leaves them.
To play a person, pick an online match, or sign in and open a private room to send a friend a code. Each room is a single game played without the doubling cube, untimed or with a clock. The board highlights where a checker can move for the dice you rolled, and your recent results are listed on the game’s stats page.
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Start at level 1 and work up, or invite a friend to a private room.