In astonishingly general terms, there are three general techniques employed. You want to be able to hop between game plans instantly as the course of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This is comprised of creating a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at a minimum as deep as you are able to manage, to lock in your competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is deemed to be the most adequate strategy at the start of the game. You can create the wall anyplace inbetween your 11-point and your two-point and then move it into your home board as the game continues.

The Blitz

This involves locking your home board as quickly as as you can while keeping your opposer on the bar. e.g., if your challenger rolls an early two and moves one checker from your 1-point to your three-point and you then roll a 5-5, you can play 6/1 6/1 8/3 8/3. Your opposer is now in serious calamity due to the fact that they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have 2 or more pieces in your competitor’s home board. (An anchor spot is a position consisting of at a minimum 2 of your pieces.) It should be played when you are extremely behind as this action much improves your chances. The best areas for anchor spots are close to your competitor’s smaller points and also on adjacent points or with one point in between. Timing is essential for a powerful backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no point having two nice anchors and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break up this straight away, while your competitor is moving their checkers home, taking into account that you don’t have any other additional pieces to move! In this situation, it is better to have pieces on the bar so that you are able to preserve your position up till your competitor provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a good idea to try and get your competitor to hit them in this case!