In exceptionally simple terms, there are 3 main game plans employed. You want to be agile enough to hop between game plans quickly as the action of the game unfolds.
The Blockade
This is composed of creating a 6-thick wall of pieces, or at a minimum as thick as you are able to achieve, to lock in the opponent’s pieces that are located on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most adequate tactic at the start of the game. You can assemble the wall anyplace within your eleven-point and your 2-point and then shuffle it into your home board as the match progresses.
The Blitz
This involves locking your home board as quickly as possible while keeping your opponent on the bar. e.g., if your opposer rolls an early two and moves one piece from your 1-point to your three-point and you then toss a five-five, you can play 6/1 six/one 8/3 eight/three. Your challenger is now in big-time dire straits seeing that they have two pieces on the bar and you have closed half your inner board!
The Backgame
This course of action is where you have 2 or higher pieces in your competitor’s inner board. (An anchor is a point filled by at least 2 of your pieces.) It must be used when you are significantly behind as this action greatly improves your chances. The better areas for anchor spots are close to your competitor’s lower points and either on adjoining points or with one point in between. Timing is crucial for a competent backgame: besides, there’s no point having 2 nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break apart this straight away, while your competitor is shifting their pieces home, owing to the fact that you do not have any other additional checkers to shift! In this case, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you might preserve your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be an excellent idea to try and get your competitor to get them in this case!
February 16th, 2026
Makenzie
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