Blocking Strategies in Backgammon

A backgammon game owes much to military tactics, one such tactic that is employed throughout the game is that of blocking, blocking translated into the military vernacular could be seen as a pincer defence movement, pinpointing strategic positions before applying a force to strengthen that position. In any case the blocking strategy needs to be considered before the game commences as trying to play this sort of game after is usually unsuccessful.

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Blocking Your Opponent
Always try to make consecutive points, as this will help towards achieving a prime block.

Build points in the middle of the board. Home board primes are good, but they do nothing to stop your opponents advance.

When you can, move your checkers all together, they can be set up to form blocks later.

A very good blocking strategy when your opposition is on the bar, is having consecutive points in your home board preventing them from entering.

Blocking like the military operation is integral to the outcome of any encounter, unlike battle you have the chance to test and hone your skills in this field, online gaming gives you the ability to play live fun games whilst practicing your strategy.

Build Points in a Row
You score a point when two or more of your checkers occupy that space. A checker on the bar is a basic blocking strategy preventing the opposition entering your home space. By building several consecutive points this stops your opponents advance. Adapting a backgammon blocking strategy not only helps you to finish your opponent off but also to score more points.

Prime Blocking
A prime block is when consecutive rows are occupied by two or more checkers preventing the opposition from moving their checkers forward. A gap between your points is called a ‘broken gap’. Here’s an example of prime blocking. 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. This blocking technique is probably the most commonly used. Whatever the roll of the dice, the black checker will not be able to move forward on the board (as the six points ahead of him are blocked) and is stuck on the four point. This block will be in force until white has moved or played one of the points from 5-10. This type of block is by far the strongest and is known as the ‘six-prime block’, as six consecutive points are blocked.

The Advantage of Prime Blocking
This example illustrates clearly the ‘prime block’; the white player has an obvious edge and is most likely to win the game. This blocking strategy gives the player an advantage to maintain the block and start bearing off before the opposition does. It is also a great method for achieving gammons and backgammons. When building a prime block, such as this the advantage is with you and at this point is advisable to double your stakes as you are now favorite to win and the recipient of more points.

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