Eight tips from the World Champion

We all want to become good backgammon players, right? We read books, play online backgammon or invite our friends for an evening of backgammon minitournaments, seek out backgammon strategy guides, discuss tricky situations on various forums, etc. We do our best to improve our game the way WE think we should be doing. But what if a leading backgammon authority would give you a number of advice how to become a good backgammon player? What if that leading authority would be Philip Vischjager, the 2006 backgammon World Champion? Would you follow his advice?

When we interviewed Philip Vischjager earlier in September we asked him how one can become a good backgammon player. This is what he had to say.

1. Play often

Obviously there is no way around it - practice makes a champion. Philip advises to play often. But how often is often? Ideally that would mean playing backgammon every day. In practice, however, there are only a few of us who can devote a large amount of their time to backgammon. Therefore you should focus on quality, but also try to keep up the routine with a quick backgammon session every now and then.

• Quality over quantity. You don’t need to force yourself playing a lot because “Philip says so”. But when you do play don’t take it half-heartedly. Be serious and focus on what you are doing. Don’t let yourself get distracted while you are playing.
• Keep up the routine - very important for novice players. Don’t let too much time pass between your backgammon sessions. Routine is highly important in backgammon, it helps you making better decisions faster. Fill your empty time slots with a quick game of backgammon so you don’t loose the touch. If you are traveling a lot you can even invest a few bucks and get one of those mobile backgammon games for PDA’s and Smartphones. Obviously you should be focusing on the game even if it is only for a short time.

2. Try to remember the difficult situations, both checker plays and cubes. If and when possible, write these situations on a piece of paper so that you can use it later in analyzing them with e.g. Snowie or by discussing with other players.

In order to make it as easy as possible for yourself be sure you learn backgammon notation. It is very simple, yet powerful way to describe complex situations.

3. After some time you will learn from your mistakes and become stronger.

Ever caught yourself thinking in a backgammon game that “hardly any roll seems to be a good one for me but all rolls seem to be good rolls for my opponent”? I guess we all have been there. But bit by bit you’ll have less of those moments and you will start recognizing where you should’ve played differently. Next time or the one after you will play the right move and that’s how you become a stronger player.

It is also a part of mental strength to recognize and accept that in backgammon you don’t need to win every single match to make the game profitable.

4. Replaying games and matches from other players is a good way to learn.

There is a damn good reason why great battles are studied at military academies. Military strategies applied great generals don’t loose their significance with time and backgammon is no different. Studying the strategies applied by world leading backgammon players will teach you a lot of things you can’t learn in your 16$ daily tournament at Play65.

5. Try to remain positive at all times; the game is not finished until all checkers have been born off.

Phsychological studies have revealed that a central element of one being successful is remaining positive in all circumstances. Backgammon often sees some dramatic shifts of fortune, backgames are an excellent example of game situations when such shifts can happen. Should you loose the edge of your concentration in a frustrating situation, you might easily make a move or two that truly put you in a situation with really low winning chances. So don’t allow that to happen.

6. Try to concentrate during every backgammon game - this will help in the future.

This takes us back to Philip’s very first advice. Not only it is important to play often but it is just as important to focus on the quality of the games. Say you play three very tight games where you focused hard but you loose all three of them. Then you play 10 half-hearted games where you just keep on playing for the victory where you had a couple of lucky rolls in the beginning that put you in a good position, but win two games. Now, which session would be more satisfying? Which one would’ve taught you more?

7. Be as relaxed as possible and try to find all the possibilities for each move. Sometimes I still make mistakes and don’t even consider the “best” move!

You won’t reach backgammon success by being tense and too nervous. Because of the nature of the game you should keep an open mind to help in making the right moves. Don’t play seriously when you are tired, stressed, hungry or in a hurry. That just doesn’t do any good, except for your opponent who takes the easy money.

Regarding Philip’s advice to find all the possibilities for each move, take an extra 5-10 seconds to reflect on your decision before you end your turn. Once you gain some experience you can involve things like duplication and diversification in your games, but that’s for later. In the beginning just make sure you didn’t make anything totally insane.

8. Remain fit. Good physical condition helps being mentally fit!

Mental fitness is the key to long-term success in backgammon. In addition to backgammon you can keeping your brains busy by doing various mental exercices such as crossword puzzles, Sudoku types of games, reading and the like. Physical fitness, however, is the other part of the equation that is often overlooked.

Do you often feel without energy and not in a mood for anything? Difficulties in getting yourself motivated for pretty much anything. Got that constant numb pain in your lower back? If yes, then chances are you are not doing much for your physical fitness. Physical fitness involves regular excercise, a healthy diet a normal healthy lifestyle. No, you don’t need to get up at 5am for an hour of jogging, you don’t need to stuff yourself full of vegetables nor you need to start attending stress release courses in the weekends. Or at least nobody is putting a gun to your head to do those things. But a moderate shit in your lifestyle involving the stuff mentioned above will definitely pay off. Not only will you do better at the backgammon board but as a bonus you’ll also spend a few more years around that board!