The objective of a Backgammon match is to move your checkers around the game board and pull them off the board faster than your opponent who works just as hard to do the same buthowever they move in the opposite direction. Succeeding in a match of Backgammon requires both strategy and luck. Just how far you can shift your pieces is up to the numbers from rolling the dice, and just how you shift your checkers are determined by your overall playing techniques. Players use different plans in the differing stages of a game depending on your positions and opponent’s.

The Running Game Strategy

The aim of the Running Game strategy is to bring all your pieces into your inner board and pull them off as fast as you can. This plan focuses on the pace of shifting your pieces with no time spent to hit or barricade your competitor’s pieces. The best scenario to use this plan is when you believe you might be able to move your own pieces a lot faster than your opposing player does: when 1) you have less pieces on the board; 2) all your checkers have moved beyond your opponent’s pieces; or 3) the opposing player doesn’t employ the hitting or blocking tactic.

The Blocking Game Plan

The primary goal of the blocking plan, by its title, is to block the competitor’s pieces, temporarily, not worrying about moving your pieces quickly. As soon as you’ve established the blockade for your competitor’s movement with a few checkers, you can shift your other chips rapidly off the game board. You will need to also have a good plan when to back off and shift the checkers that you used for blocking. The game gets intriguing when the opposition uses the same blocking tactic.