• Home

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

In very general terms, there are three chief tactics used. You want to be agile enough to hop between techniques quickly as the action of the match unfolds.

The Blockade

This is composed of creating a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at least as deep as you are able to achieve, to barricade in the opponent’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most acceptable course of action at the start of the game. You can assemble the wall anywhere between your 11-point and your two-point and then shift it into your home board as the game progresses.

The Blitz

This is comprised of locking your home board as quick as as you can while keeping your opponent on the bar. i.e., if your opponent rolls an early 2 and moves one piece from your 1-point to your three-point and you then toss a five-five, you can play 6/1 6/1 8/3 eight/three. Your opponent is then in big-time difficulty considering that they have 2 checkers on the bar and you have locked half your inner board!

The Backgame

This strategy is where you have 2 or higher checkers in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor spot is a position occupied by at a minimum two of your pieces.) It would be employed when you are significantly behind as it much improves your opportunities. The better areas for anchor spots are near your opponent’s smaller points and also on adjacent points or with one point in between. Timing is important for an effective backgame: at the end of the day, there’s no point having two nice anchor spots and a solid wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to dismantle this straight away, while your challenger is getting their pieces home, considering that you don’t have any other spare pieces to shift! In this situation, it is more tolerable to have pieces on the bar so that you are able to preserve your position up till your opposer provides you a chance to hit, so it will be a good idea to try and get your challenger to hit them in this case!

Log in