10 Essential Backgammon Strategies for Winning More Games
Quick answer: Strong backgammon strategy is less about chasing a single “best” move and more about reading the position: build useful points, keep checkers connected, limit unnecessary blots, and change plans when a race, attack, holding game, or back game calls for it.
These ten principles describe standard international backgammon. Turkish tavla is closely related, but house rules—especially around the doubling cube and some tactical conventions—can differ. Agree on the format before play.
1. Make points that work together
A made point has at least two checkers and cannot be landed on by the opponent. Prefer points that improve both your structure and future moves: the 5-point is especially valuable in many positions, while adjacent made points can begin a blocking wall.
2. Keep your checkers connected
Checkers spread across several nearby points give you more legal moves on the next roll. Avoid creating isolated stacks that leave the rest of your position with no builders. Before moving, ask which checkers can help make a point next turn.
3. Build a prime when the opponent is behind it
A prime is six consecutive made points. It prevents an opposing checker from passing until one of those points is opened. A partial prime can still be powerful when it blocks the opponent’s path or limits their safe landing spots.
4. Attack only when the follow-up is credible
Hitting an exposed checker sends it to the bar, but a hit is not automatically right. It is strongest when you also have home-board points that make re-entry difficult. With few home-board points, an aggressive hit may simply give the opponent an easy return shot.
5. Protect your home board
Making points in your home board turns a hit into real pressure. A closed board—six made home-board points—can keep an opposing checker on the bar. Do not confuse this with a universal instruction to stack your home board early: development and timing still matter.
6. Bring the back checkers into play
Your farthest checkers are usually the hardest to move later. When the position is not a deliberate back game, seek sensible opportunities to bring them forward while retaining enough structure to avoid leaving a vulnerable blot.
7. Count the race before choosing a plan
When contact is likely to end, compare pip counts: add the remaining points each checker must travel. A lead can justify safer, faster play; a deficit may make it reasonable to create contact or seek a shot. Pip count is evidence, not a complete evaluation.
8. Know whether you are playing a race, holding game, or back game
Race
With no possibility of hitting, the main question is efficiency: move checkers home and bear off without wasting pips.
Holding game
Keep a useful anchor in the opponent’s home board while your other checkers improve. The anchor gives you a chance to hit if the opponent leaves a blot.
Back game
A back game deliberately retains two deep anchors and waits for a shot. It is a specialist recovery plan, not a default response to being behind.
9. Use spare checkers wisely
Extra checkers on made points are “spares.” They let you move without breaking the point. Strip too many spares and your structure becomes fragile; keep too many stacks and you lose flexibility. Look for moves that redistribute a spare into a useful builder.
10. Make the whole roll whenever possible
In standard backgammon, both dice numbers must be played if legally possible; if only one number can be played, the higher number must be used. That rule makes move order strategic: play one die first only after checking whether it preserves use of the other.
A practical decision routine
- Identify the game type: contact, race, holding game, or back game.
- Check immediate shots, blots, and bar-entry risks.
- Compare candidate moves for points made, builders retained, and back-checker safety.
- If it is a race, count pips before assuming a lead is decisive.
- Choose the move that improves the plan, not merely the current roll.
Continue learning
Use our rules guide for legal-move basics, the board setup guide to orient the points, and the backgammon glossary for the terms used here.
Sources and rule note
For standard international rules and definitions of made points, primes, the bar, and the doubling cube, see the Backgammon Galore Basic Rules FAQ. This article is educational and does not substitute for tournament-specific rules.