Backgammon Strategy Guide: From Beginner to Advanced (2026)

Good backgammon players don’t just react to dice — they create positions that maximize their chances of winning regardless of what numbers come up. This comprehensive strategy guide covers everything from fundamental concepts to advanced positional play.

Core Strategic Concepts

The Five Types of Backgammon Games

Every backgammon game tends to evolve into one of five patterns. Recognizing which type you’re in is the foundation of good strategy.

1. The Running Game

When: You’re ahead in the race (lower pip count). Strategy: Avoid contact. Run your checkers home as fast as possible. Don’t leave blots if you can avoid it. When to use the cube: Double when you’re ahead by roughly 10% in the pip count.

2. The Holding Game

When: You’re behind in the race but hold an anchor (a point with 2+ checkers) in your opponent’s home board. Strategy: Maintain your anchor and wait for a chance to hit. Your anchor provides insurance against a gammon while giving you a shot at turning the game. Key points to anchor: The 20-point (opponent’s 5-point) is best, followed by the 21-point (opponent’s 4-point).

3. The Priming Game

When: You can build a wall of consecutive occupied points (“prime”). Strategy: Build a 4, 5, or 6-point prime to trap your opponent’s checkers. A full 6-prime (six consecutive points) is an impenetrable wall. Key principle: A prime is strongest when opponent checkers are trapped behind it.

4. The Blitz

When: You have a strong home board and your opponent has checkers on the bar. Strategy: Attack aggressively. Hit every blot you can, lock down your home board, and don’t let your opponent re-enter. Close out the board if possible (all 6 home board points occupied). Risk: If the blitz fails, you may be overextended.

5. The Back Game

When: You’re significantly behind and hold two or more points in your opponent’s home board. Strategy: This is a desperation strategy. Hold two anchors deep in your opponent’s board, build your own home board, and wait for a late hit. If it works, you can win spectacularly. Warning: Back games are high-risk. They often result in gammons if they fail.

Fundamental Principles

Making Points (Building)

Occupying a point with 2+ checkers “makes” it — opponents can’t land there. Key points to prioritize:

The 5-point (your own) — The most important point on the board. Control it early.
The bar point (7-point) — Extends your prime and blocks runners.
The 4-point — Strengthens your home board.
The opponent’s 5-point (20-point) — A strong defensive anchor.

Hitting

Sending opponent checkers to the bar is powerful because:

It costs your opponent an entire turn (or more) to re-enter
It puts them further from bearing off
It can lead to a gammon if they can’t re-enter quickly

When to hit: Almost always hit in the early game. In the late game, hit only when it doesn’t risk your own position.

Leaving Blots

Sometimes you must leave blots (single checkers). Minimize risk by:

Leaving blots where they’re least likely to be hit (far from opponent checkers)
Using the “rule of eights” — a blot 7+ points from the nearest opponent is relatively safe
Leaving blots for a purpose (to build a point next turn, called “slotting”)

The Pip Count

Your pip count is the total number of points all your checkers must travel to bear off. Knowing your pip count vs. your opponent’s tells you who leads the race.

How to count quickly:

Multiply the number of checkers on each point by the point number
Sum all products = your pip count
Starting pip count for both players: 167

Intermediate Strategy

Diversification

Spread your moves across different numbers. If most of your good moves require the same dice combination, you’re poorly diversified. Aim for positions where many different rolls help you.

Timing

Timing refers to how efficiently your position will hold up over future rolls. Good timing means:

Having checkers available to move usefully
Not being forced to break useful points
Having options for different dice rolls

Games with primes are heavily about timing — if you run out of useful moves before your opponent escapes, your prime crumbles.

Connectivity

Keep your checkers spread within reach of each other. Disconnected checkers (very far apart, or too stacked on a few points) reduce your flexibility.

Duplication

Try to make your opponent need the same numbers for multiple purposes. If they need a 5 to hit and a 5 to escape, they can’t do both with one 5. This “duplicates” their good numbers.

Conversely, diversify your own needs — don’t make yourself need the same numbers for different objectives.

Advanced Concepts

Reference Positions

Experienced players memorize key positions and their correct cube actions. These “reference positions” serve as benchmarks:

Race positions — Know when to double based on pip count differentials
Holding game positions — Understand when your anchor is worth keeping
Blitz positions — Recognize when to attack vs. play safe

Match Play vs. Money Play

Strategy changes based on the score:

Leading in the match: Play conservatively. Avoid gammon risk.
Trailing in the match: Take more risks. Gammon wins are proportionally more valuable.
Crawford game: The player ahead cannot use the doubling cube.
Post-Crawford: The trailing player should double immediately every game (the cube has no downside for them).

Gammon Saves

When you may be gammoned, prioritize bearing off at least one checker. Even a 1-point loss is vastly better than a 2-point gammon loss.

The Cube in Practice

Good cube decisions require understanding:

When to double: When your winning chances are around 70-75% in money play
When to take: When your winning chances are 25% or better
When to drop: When your winning chances are below 25%

These thresholds shift based on gammon risk and match score.

Common Mistakes

Playing too safe — Beginners avoid contact when they should be hitting
Ignoring the pip count — Not knowing who leads the race leads to bad decisions
Breaking anchors too early — Your anchor in the opponent’s board is insurance
Not using the doubling cube — The cube is where money (or points) are won and lost
Stacking checkers — Piling 5+ checkers on one point wastes resources