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When playing backgammon, playing the opening roll has a great affect as to the reminder of the game and many experts agree that one of the basic strategy in backgammon is knowing the correct opening moves. Lets review the opening moves in backgammon.
The oldest known game in the history of mankind is Backgammon. Throughout the history of the game experts backgammon players from all over the world have analyzed each possible move, putting special emphasis on the backgammon opening moves. The results of these studies into the backgammon opening moves have agreed upon certain opening moves are universally correct. This, of course, serves to the benefit of beginners to the game of backgammon since any novice can always be sure that he is making the right backgammon opening move.

·6-6 - will allow you to close both your and your opponents 7 points.

·5-5 - you should always move 2 pieces from your midpoint (12 point) to your 3-point.

·4-4 - you can create with ease an anchor on your opponents 5 point and your own 9 point.

·3-3 - will help you make your 5 point and your opponents 4 point.

·2-2 - can help you close the 5 point of your opponent by moving your back pieces twice.

·1-1 - one of the greatest combinations to start with as you can close both your 7 point and your 5 point, two of the most important pieces on the board.

One of the best opening moves would be 3-1 as it will allow you to close your 5 point. An opening move of 6-1 will close the 7 point and a 4-2 opening move will close the 4 point. If your opening move is 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 4-3 and 3-2 you should move two checkers from your midpoint; however an opening move of 2-3, 4-5 and 4-3 can be used to close one of the opponent's points and move one checker from the midpoint. An opening move of 5-4 can alternatively move one of the back pieces nine points ahead.

The opening moves of 6-5, 6-4, 6-3 and 6-2 most of the time should move one of the back pieces using both dices. In addition you can also move one checker from the back to your opponent's 7 point and move another checker from the midpoint. Even today, after countless years of play and study, expert players still debate on what you should do with the 6-2 opening move, even so many are inclined on moving one piece from the midpoint and slot the 5 point.


With the opening rolls of 2-1, 4-1 and 5-1 you can split your back pieces in your opponents home board or slot the 5 point and move one piece from the midpoint with the reminder dice.

By knowing your Backgammonopening moves you are already getting a head start on your opponent and eventually the game.

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When there is only one checker on a point (a blot), it might be hit by the opponent and end up on the bar. However, when there are two or more checkers on a point, they cannot be hit. Moreover, they sometimes block the opponent and prevent him from progressing in the game.

In backgammon, the first player to bear off his checkers is the winner. It seems that the best strategy is to try to hit as much as possible, and on the other hand, to ensure that your own men are not alone on a point, so that you will not be hit. However, this strategy, used by most beginners, proves to be wrong. Here are some considerations you should take into account when attempting to establish a winning strategy.
Distribution

Distribution is the division of a player's checkers among his owned points. A good strategy is to divide the checkers as evenly as possible among one's owned points. A player who does so will have a much better chance of winning.

Exposure

If you wish to create a strong line of attack or defense, you should leave shots in the early stages of the game. However, watch your steps as your enemy's home board is strengthened, because you will have a much harder time re-entering from the bar if most of the points are owned by the opponent.

On the other hand, you can take more risks if you control many of the points in your opponent's home board (anchors). You should try to have no more than four blots, despite the fact that his board is weak. The leader of the game should try to keep his winning status by limiting his exposure to the opponent's hits.

Blocking and Priming

A prime is formed when there are six points in a row. This structure is formed in order to trap the opponent, and it is advisable to create it in the early stages of the game, so as to have a significant advantage over the opponent.

Hitting

When hitting a checker, you should consider if it will benefit you in any way. Checkers which are a good hit are those that are closest to the opponent's home board or those that may become a significant owned point for the opponent once they are covered.

Make reasonable decisions. For instance, sometimes making another point in your home board may be more important than hitting your opponent. Moreover, avoid hitting your opponent when it may weaken you. Try to see clearly and look one step ahead. However, if you are not sure of your next move, hitting can (almost) never hurt.

Anchoring

Some players set up a protective point (anchor) in the opponent's home board. This is called anchoring. Anchoring provides you with a place to land if you get hit. It also holds your opponent back from his home board. In the first part of the game, try to create anchors on the higher points (20,21). If you are losing the game, the lower points (22,23,24) are more worthy, since building your home board and waiting for a shot should be your basic concern. It is best to have your anchors on adjoining points.

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In this article and a few to follow we are going to go back to the fundamentals of backgammon and examine how to play the Backgammon opening rolls. As with other games of skill, the opening roll goes a long way towards shaping the game that will follow.

Just like with other games, in backgammon we will see that certain opening rolls can be played aggressively or played passively. The opening roll that you decide to play will depend on the current game situation.

Before we can discuss the different types of opening rolls we must first consider the main objective of the game. Basically, backgammon is a race for home, however, if that was the point of the game then nobody would play it. Even if in the end the race will decide the winner there are many other issues and strategies within the game. To get ahead in the game, we need to create safe landing spots for our checkers, i.e. make points. Another major objective of the game is to hold back your opponent as much as you can. The ideal thing to do would be to trap one or more of his checkers behind a strong blockade. This is called a prime. A prime is a set of contiguous points, where the ultimate is a full prime – six points in a row. While a six-point prime would be ideal, five-point and four-point primes are also very strong.
So our basic goals at the beginning of the game are to create new points – preferably natural numbers (6-1,4-2,5-3) that easily form part of a prime and to begin a race for home. When starting the race for home, the most difficult checkers to get home are the two furthest away at the start of the game, i.e. the two checkers on our opponent’s ace-point. Because of this, it would be highly in our favor to move those checkers in the opening roll, the two checkers on the ace-point. Another important objective is to unstack our heavy points. During the inital set-up, we position 5 checkers on our mid-point (13-pt) and our 6-pt. Five checkers on a single point does not help us in any way so we want to spread and use those checkers as quickly as we can.

36 rolls of the two dice are possible. Each number combination can occur twice, except doubles. For example, 62 can be thrown as a 6 on the first dice and a 2 on the second dice or as a 2 on the first dice and a 6 on the second dice. Excluding the doubles – as those can never be an opening roll – then there are actually only 15 rolls to consider. These 15 opening rolls are put into four groups:

Rolls that are always played the same (5): 31, 42, 53, 61, 65 Rolls on which there is a consensus (2): 62, 63 Slot or split rolls (3): 21, 41, 51 Rolls that are debated: 32, 43, 52, 54, 64

If you think about it, it is quite shocking that after 3,000 years of play some of the opening rolls are still under dispute!

In the next page of this article we will describe specific Backgammon Opening Rolls and how to play them.

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The game of Backgammon is more then a race against your opponent to see who can bring their checkers fastest to their home board. It involves one of the key strategies in backgammon which is the blocking method, which is when a player hinders his opponents advance on the board by keeping points blocked and putting checkers on the bar.

The strategy of blocking in backgammon should be planned from the start, so a player can look a few moves forward and plan his strategy.
Building Points in a Row

A point is when two or more of your checkers occupy that space. When having a checker on the bar, having a point in your home board is a basic blocking strategy as your opponent will not be able to enter. If you build several consecutive points this would greatly hinder your opponents advance. This backgammon blocking strategy not only helps you to finish your opponent but to score more points.

Prime Blocking

A Prime Backgammon Blocking

One of the backgammon blocking strategy is a prime Block. A prime block is when consecutive rows are occupied by two or more checkers and prevent the opponent from continuing to advance their checkers. If there is a gap between your points it is called a “broken gap”.

Lets have a look at an example of the prime blocking strategy: Black has his checkers in the four point and the following points up to the ten point are occupied by two of white's checkers. The effectiveness of this blocking strategy is that whatever the roll of the dice, the black checker will not be able to advance on the board (as the six points ahead of him are blocked) and is subsequently stuck on the four point. This blocking strategy will be in effect until white has moved or played one of the points from 5-10. This type of blocking strategy is the strongest and is called the “six-prime block”, because six consecutive points are blocked. This backgammon blocking technique is probably the most commonly used technique.

The Advantage of Prime Blocking

Looking at the previous example of the blocking strategy called the “prime block”, it is evident that the white player has an obvious edge and is most likely to win the game. What this blocking strategy enables a player is to somewhat maintain the block and start to bear off before his opponent does. This blocking strategy is also a great contributor in achieving gammons and backgammons. If you are successful in this blocking strategy and are able to build a prime block, you should consider doubling the stakes since you are the favorite to win and most likely to make more points.

How to Block Your Opponent

To be successful in applying the backgammon blocking strategy, simply follow these rules:
·Try to make consecutive points. This will help you achieve a prime block.

·Try to build points in the middle of the board. As much as home board primes are helpful, they do not block your opponents advance.

·Try not to move one checkers at a time aim to move them together. Even if they are not forming any blocks, they can be set up to become ones later on.

·Some blocks can be relevant when having your opponent on the bar, such as having consecutive points in your home board which will prevent your opponent from entering. This is a very good blocking strategy.

The blocking strategy in backgammon is an integral part of the game but it needs practice. You can practice the blocking strategy playing online backgammon and try to focus on building blocking points or primes in your practice session.

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When calling a double while playing backgammon it increases the value of the stake two folds and if a re-double is presented then it would increase the stakes four-fold.

When to call a double?

There are some basic rules to learn as to when to call a double but what it comes down to is if you are highly confident that you have an advantage in the game, then call a double.
How to call a double?

To call a double, simply turn the doubling cube which should already be placed on the bar. When calling a double and if the opponent accepts the double, then the game points or stakes are doubled. For example, if the game is played for 1 point it will become 2, 2 will become 4, 3 will become 6 and so on. Remember that if a double is called and the opponent refuses to accept the double, then the game is over immediately and the opponent forfeits the game.

When a double is called by the first player and the second player (opponent) accepts the double, the doubling cube is given to the second player who now has possession of the doubling cube. This rule was put into place in order to try to keep things even as the player, who accepts the double, now has complete control of the cube and the possibility of calling another double. If the player decided to double again, this implies a “re-double”, which means the stake has been further doubled. However, the same strategy implies here as well and the second player will only call a double if he feels that he has the upper hand. If a re-double is called, then the first player must abide by the same rules as mentioned above. If the first player refuses to take the re-double, then he will forfeit the game. A re-double simply quadruples the original value of the stake, for example 1 will become 4, 2 will become 8, 3 will become 12.

When doubling and re-doubling there is no limit. Players only alternate the exclusivity possession on the doubling cube, as well as the value of the stake increasing following the arithmetic rules. The double and re-double was introduced into the game of backgammon to increase the stakes and speed up the game.

There is another term related to doubling called: “Beavers”. During normal play, when the doubling cube is put to use the opponent accepts, the first player forfeits the exclusive right of the doubling cube. If the first player does not want to lose possession of the doubling cube, he will immediately call for a re-double or beaver. When a beaver occurs, the decision is pushed back to the opponent’s, for acceptance or conceding a defeat of that game by refusal. This rule however is mostly used in money play, not in matches or tournaments.

What is the doubling cube:

The doubling cube has the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 printed on its faces. Its shape is slightly larger than the original dice. The doubling cube is used to keep track of the increased value of the stake. At the beginning of the game, the cube is placed on the bar to signify its neutrality, meaning that neither player controls the cube. The cube is placed with the face showing 64 at the top, which represents the initial status of the stake as 1, and then it is switched between the players with the face showing increased value depending upon the progress of the game.

Doubling cubes come in many shapes or sizes and it is customary to place the cube in the middle of the board to indicate the statues. As much as players like the vivid colors and shapes of the doubling cube it is not mandatory. A pen and paper will get the job done as well.

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