- Wednesday, September 13, 2006
The backgammon blitz is an attack on one or more of your opponent's checkers, while trying to close as many points in your home board as possible, keeping your opponent on the bar. Until these rows are set, you constantly hit on your opponent's checkers, repeatedly sending them to the bar. The blitz involves knowing when to hit your opponent, how to build primes, and when to relinquish the blitz, as well.
On your way to making a backgammon blitz, spread your checkers across the board by making a point with two or more checkers so you can't be hit. Nevertheless, you can open a point with only one checker, and thus have more playing options and more rolls to maneuver, eventually making more points. After hitting your opponent’s checker, there are two factors to remember:
* the point you make with one checker is far away from the hitting reach of your opponent, preferably more than 6 points
* be careful of exposed checkers if your opponent is trying to create a backgammon prime on their home board, because they might be trying to make a backgammon blitz, too
The best defense against a blitz is an advanced anchor. You should be reluctant to break an anchor to split your back checkers. For this strategy, it’s often a benefit to have three checkers back, as you'll have more ways of making an advanced anchor. However, you usually don't want to have four checkers back; therefore, you want to be careful about playing loose around the rest of your board. Making a second point in your board helps your position because if you're hit loose and hit back, there are twenty rolls in which your opponent will not have a choice which numbers to play on the blitzing side.
The success of a blitz occurs when you hit your opponent, send them to the bar, and completely block your home board. In this case, your opponent is blocked and cannot move until you clear one of the home board points and the turn then automatically goes to you. This backgammon blitz is a closeout. The backgammon blitz fails if the opponent succeeds making an anchor in your board.
In addition, after you initiate a backgammon blitz, when to make a double is very important. The right time is usually when your opponent fails to enter the home board from the bar and you've already made two or more home board points. Doubling is even more important with blitz games because the Jacoby rule states you cannot win a game of gammon if you haven't doubled at least once; hence, the double should be done quite early in the backgammon blitz. If there is no checker on the bar, and your opponent holds only two points on their home board, then you can accept a double. If your opponent has three points on the board, you should consider rejecting the double and losing, unless you can hold your opponent's checkers and can achieve a backgammon blitz.
Return to articles
