BACKGAMMON IN A WEEK
Friday - It All Goes Wrong!
The Backgame
Diagram 71
The hopeless backgame
In diagram 71 Black is in a hopeless 1 and 5 point backgame, with no timing. Black should play 24/20 and on again 20/15 to try and avoid a gammon, preserving his 5 point anchor for re-entry if the blot on the 24 point is hit.
Diagram 72
Increasing backgame timing
Diagram 72 is in fact the position illustrated in diagram 68 after White has played 2:2 (but here Black, not White, is in the backgame). White has exposed two blots in his home board hoping that Black will hit one blot so that he loses 20+ points of timing to try and destroy the Black backgame, and to recycle his chequers round the board to make points in front of the White anchor.
Look at the situation from Black's point of view.
- At the moment Black has a weak 1 and 5 point backgame. It would be far better against a potential outer board prime to hold other forward points such as 3 and 4 or 3 and 2 or 5 and 4.
- If he decides to hit the white blot he will become short of timing for a backgame, so he can only hit if he is sure of being able to regain timing by having more blots hit.
If Black plays Bar/24, 24/22 he avoids hitting White and so retains his timing, but remains unlikely to be able to make a better backgame position.
If he plays Bar/23* he must restore his timing and the best way to do this is to play the one 4/3 to expose three blots in his home board, hoping to have more blots hit to increase the probability of both improving his timing and making better backgame points.
This is a high risk strategy, if it goes wrong Black will face the loss of a gammon or backgammon.
Again, it must be emphasised that a player should only play a backgame if he is forced into it and should never get into a backgame if it can be avoided.
Different positions held in the opponent's home board can often produce a weak point that is particularly likely to be forced to expose a blot, like the 5 point in a 1 and 3 point backgame. The player should try to identify the weakest point in front of the backgame position and try, if possible, to counter the weakness by correct placement of the chequers.
The best defence of all in a well timed backgame is to clear points and pile up builders on the remaining points. The less points to clear - the less the likelihood of a blot being exposed.
Summary of backgame battle plan
Playing a backgame
- Do not play a backgame from choice. They are potential disaster situations that often end in a gammon.
- Backgames require huge amounts of timing. Without plenty of timing abandon the backgame and try to save the gammon.
Defending a backgame
- Try and hold your prime until the opponent's home board collapses.
- Select moves that might force the opponent to destroy his backgame position.
- Identify the weak point in your home board and try either to pile plenty of spare chequers onto it, or clear the point completely.
- Play for safety. Clear points and pile up builders rather than rushing to remove chequers.
- Don't give the opponent extra timing by hitting blots unnecessarily.
This extract appears with acknowledgements to publishers Hodder & Stoughton Educational. "Backgammon In A Week" is out of print.
