Backgame advanced strategy

As promised in the first part of our Backgame article we continue now with the advanced strategical elements of a backgame. If you haven’t read the first part yet, read the Introduction to Backgame article. In this second part we will have a closer look at timing, doubling strategies and various anchor positions in a backgame.

Timing

Timing is the measure of how long a player can keep a desired position, such as prime or his anchors, before having to make concessions, i.e. break the prime or move the anchor checkers. Timing is very important for the player playing a backgame because his main goal will be to hit and contain one or more checkers. By the time he has the first chance to hit he should’ve already built or be close to building a solid prime that would help in containing the checker once hit.

In practice, if your timing gets below 20 and you still haven’t managed to hit a checker you are in trouble. In other words, if you are sitting there with two anchors with a timing less than 20 and you haven’t yet hit a checker and your opponent offers a double you should pass - a gammon loss is a real threat at that stage. Obviously it would be a mistake in that situation for the leading player even to consider to double.

Counting backgame timing

Ok, so if you are in a backgame you should be keeping a close eye on your timing. But how do you count timing in a backgame? Normally you would count timing all the way until the ace-point, but in a backgame you count the timing until your strongest possible home board. In a backgame you have a minimum of two anchors on the opponent’s home board, meaning that you have 11 remaining checkers. The best you can do is to make five points and leave a blot. Let’s examine White’s timing in Picture 1 below, the same situation we already used in the previous backgame article.

Picture 1. White’s timing is 50.

In the above picture White’s timing is 50. Let’s count at how we get this figure:

• the 13-point checkers can be moved to the ace-point = 12 pips each x 2 = 24 pips
• the 9-point checker to the 2-point = 7 pips
• one 8-point checker to the 2-point = 6 pips
• two 8-point checkers to the 3-point = 5 pips x 2 = 10 pips
• one 6-point checker to the 4-point = 2 pips
• one 5-point checker to the 4-point = 1 pip

Together that’s 24 + 7 + 6 + 10 + 2 + 1 = 50. Moving White’s checkers forward by 50 pips would make the situation look as in Picture 2 below.

Picture 2. White’s checkers have been
moved forward by 50 pips.

You might consider counting an additional pip for covering the 5-point blot but it doesn’t make a big difference. However, moving the blot away to safety would be considered as breaking your home board because you would need two checkers instead of one to make the point.

An example of a situation where White is right on the limit when he could still take a double is illustrated below in Picture 3. Note that anything worse than that his timing would be just too bad before he would have to break his home board and the chances to contain a checker would be too low.

Picture 3. White’s timing is on the limit whether.
Should Black double, would you take or pass?

Doubling cube strategies

I think I got a little carried away with timing above, it’s not the most important element of a backgame. Many backgames end in a double being passed by either player, so timing is important because it determines a take or a pass. But let’s look at some other doubling situations now.

One of the best indicators for the race leader to double is when he has only three more points made in front of the opponent’s anchors in his home board. Three points often means that nearly all checkers are already on the home board and thus close to bear-off. So in a normal backgame when there are two anchors there is no need for the race leader to double prematurely.

A full prime together with the trailing player’s bad timing is another good combination to offer a double.

The player with a backgame really needs to consider his timing in taking or passing a double. If he in turn decides to offer a double he will need to consider the following:

• If he doubles, will he be able to contain the checker he might hit?
• What are the chances of hitting other checkers?
• How many checkers has the opponent born off?
• Are there any gaps in the opponent’s prime?
• Which anchors does he have?

It requires some experience to be able to judge accurately to situation when considering the points above. Probably the easiest double a player with a backgame can offer is when he has a very strong home board, he has escaped one or two checkers and he has also hit a checker. Then again, it’s not all that easy to get to that stage. That’s why executing a well-played backgame is a sign of maturity and experience.

The importance of anchor positions

A good backgame involves having good anchor positions. There are big differences between different anchor positions as Snowie analysis shows in the table below. It shows how Snowie estimates the average number of points lost per game for each backgame as well as the correct doubling cube action. The cube action is given both whether the race leader should offer a double and whether the trailing player should take or pass a double if the race leader offer a double at the moment when the game develops into a backgame. At later stages of a backgame doubling is determined largely by timing, gaps in primes, checker distributions and possible checkers born off.

From the table you can see that the best anchor positions are with one anchor on the three-point and the worst ones involve an ace-point anchor. An ace-point anchors are generally weak because it helps your opponent in the sense that he doesn’t have to play sixes.

A word of warning for beginners

There are a lot of experienced players out there who love to put themselves into a backgame against novice players. An experienced player can make the game a deadly one with a good backgame and many novice players soon find themselves in trouble against such a player and often loose a gammon loss.

The way it normally goes is that the experienced player leaves easy shots in the beginning of the game and makes his opponent hit one checker after another. Before the player realises the opponent has established good backgame anchors, possibly anchors on the three and two-points.

A thumb rule to avoid being tricked into such a situation if you suspect someone trying it against you, is not to hit a blot if that would relatively easily allow your opponent to make two strong anchors. Unless hitting comes with an important advantage to you in such a moment, just focus on building your own board. That will leave your opponent with only three checkers on your home board, perhaps even for several moves - that is then often long enough to get your own board together and avoid a backgame threat.