Backgame Advice: Anchors, Timing and Knowing When to Hold
Every game of backgammon is a race at heart. You can try to win that race by moving forward faster, or you can fall behind on purpose, keep checkers back, and wait for your opponent to leave a shot. The second approach covers a whole family of defensive plans. The backgame is the most extreme member of that family, and also the most misunderstood.
Holding Games, Deep Anchors and Backgames
Older books used "backgame" for almost any position where one side waited for a shot. Modern theory is more precise and sorts defensive positions by the anchors involved. An anchor is a point you own in your opponent's home board.
- Holding game: one anchor on an advanced point, usually your opponent's 4 or 5 point (sometimes the 3 point). It watches the outer board, so you can win either by hitting a shot as your opponent brings checkers home or simply by winning the race.
- Deep anchor game: one anchor on the 1, 2 or 3 point. You are usually well behind in the race, and your chances come from a late shot during your opponent's bear-in or bear-off, or from rolling big doubles.
- Backgame: two or more anchors. The plan is to hold both points, force your opponent into an awkward bear-in, hit a late shot and then contain the hit checker behind a prime you have built in the meantime.
The 3 point sits on the border between the first two categories. Early in the game it works like an advanced anchor; later, once your opponent has primed you, it behaves like a deep one.
Which Anchor Pairs Work
The classic backgames use two deep anchors close together: the 1 and 2, 1 and 3, 2 and 3, or 2 and 4 points. Holding checkers that deep delays the moment the shot arrives, which buys you time to build a prime in front of the checker you will hit.
Other pairs are technically backgames but rarely play like one:
- Two advanced anchors (such as 3 and 4, or 4 and 5): one anchor usually breaks early and the game turns into an ordinary holding game.
- Widely split anchors (1 and 4, 1 and 5, 2 and 5): one of them tends to go, leaving either a holding game or a deep anchor game.
The 1 and 5 combination is the awkward case. You seldom get to keep both points until a shot appears, and even when you do, the threat is weaker than a real deep backgame. Often you face an unpleasant choice: keep the 5 point and give up the ace point, falling far behind in the race, or keep the ace point and risk being primed and gammoned.
With three anchors, the position is clearly a backgame and usually offers good winning chances, as long as the shot does not come too early.
Timing Is Everything
Timing means having enough spare moves to keep your structure intact while you wait. A backgame player with poor timing is forced to break his home board before the shot arrives. Then, when he finally hits, there is no prime to hold the checker, and the opponent escapes and wins anyway, often with a gammon because the backgame player has so many checkers far from home.
Good timing usually comes from having checkers sent back. That sounds odd, but every checker hit gives you more pips to play while your forward position stays intact. Use the pip count to judge your timing: if you are well behind in the race but your opponent is still far from bearing in, you probably have time; if both sides are close to bearing in, you may be about to crunch.
Can a Backgame Be Too Big?
Yes. A player with too many checkers back may never get them all home before being gammoned. But counting checkers alone is the wrong test. Look at the whole board: where the back checkers sit, how strong each side's forward structure is, and whether your prime will be ready when the shot finally comes.
Backgames are an advanced plan. Most of the time a holding game or a straight race is the better choice, and the backgame is something you fall into rather than aim for. For the broader picture of choosing a game plan, see successful backgammon strategy and our basic strategy guide.