Backgammon Tips
These tips are habits rather than rules. Each one is simple, but together they separate players who move checkers from players who make decisions. If some terms are new to you, keep the glossary open while you read.
1. Always have a plan
Before you move, ask what you are trying to do: win the race, trap checkers behind a prime, attack, or hold an anchor and wait. The plan may change after the next roll, and that is fine. What matters is that every move serves some goal. When the game is clearly lost, the plan becomes saving the gammon: get your back checkers moving and bring a checker home in time.
2. Find at least two candidate moves
Most mistakes happen because a player sees one natural move and plays it at once. Train yourself to find a second and third option before touching a checker. Often the move you would have played is still best, but the habit catches the times when it is not.
3. Do not always play safe
A move that leaves no blots can still be a bad move if it wrecks your position or wastes checkers deep in your home board. Early in the game, leaving a blot to bring a builder into play is often correct, especially when your opponent's home board is weak and getting hit would cost little. Take risks when the reward is real and the cost is small.
4. When you must leave a shot, make it count
If every move leaves a blot, choose the one where the blot does the most good if it is not hit. A blot that becomes a valuable point next turn is worth more than one sitting where it helps nothing. Also prefer distances that give your opponent fewer hitting numbers: a blot seven or more points away is hit far less often than one within six. The probability page lists the exact figures.
5. Count the race
Learn to count pips quickly. Each side starts with 167. An average roll moves about 8.17 pips, so a lead of around 8 pips is worth roughly one roll. Knowing whether you lead or trail tells you whether to break contact and run, or to hold back and wait for a shot.
6. Respect the cube
- Do not refuse doubles out of fear. You can take a double whenever your chances in the game are good enough, and that threshold is lower than most beginners think; the doubling cube page explains the 25% take point.
- Double when it cannot cost you. In a post-Crawford game, the trailing player loses nothing by doubling at once, because the leader needs only one game to win the match anyway.
- Learn to use match equity tables. They tell you how much each score is worth and turn match cube decisions from guesswork into arithmetic.
7. Review your games
The fastest way to improve is to look back at your own play. Free programs such as GNU Backgammon can analyze a whole match and show which moves and cube decisions cost you the most. Focus on your biggest errors first; they usually repeat. Our article on studying with software explains how to get started.
8. Stay calm about luck
Dice will sometimes favor a weaker opponent, and a strong position can still lose. Judge your play by the quality of your decisions, not by the result of a single game. Over a long series of games, good decisions win.