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Mastering Movement in Backgammon

One of the basic skills one needs to learn is mastering movement in backgammon. It will definitely take some time and practice to master the movement of your checkers. Here are some pointers.

1. Get your board set up and master the positions. If you've forgotten how to set up the board please review the rules. Mastering the starting positions allows you to easily progress from the start of the game.

Depending on your dice roll you get a chance to choose your strategy easily when you already have an idea where each piece is during the opening play. Mastering your initial positions gives you an advantage as the first few turns will determine whether you will do a running game, blocking game, or a priming game.

2. Remember that all pieces move in a circular direction heading towards the home board. On your end it would seem that your pieces move counter-clockwise and your opponent's pieces move clockwise. In other words, you and your opponent's pieces aren't running like horses on a racetrack. Instead they go in opposite directions.

3. One big factor regarding movement is the roll of the dice. Basically the number you get on a given dice roll determines how many points up do you get to move on the board. And it also tells whether you gain extra 2 moves or not.

Remember that when you get a double (an example would be a six and a six) this gives you an advantage. You get to play the number on the dice four times! Though this gives an advantage at a running game, it also opens possibilities for other strategies.

4. One important rule to remember is you can only occupy an empty point on the backgammon board. Also, you may want to take note of points on the game-board that are occupied only by a single enemy checker. These are called blots.

Consider these as weak points in your opponent's positioning. Blots are opportunities to hit your opponent and send that piece back to the bar. A good advice is to hit an enemy piece when you're quite clear of other pieces or you have another piece to stack up to after you make a hit.

Whenever your piece is hit and returned to the bar a player's first move during the next turn is to get that piece out of the bar. You begin movement from the bar off through your opponent's home board. In other words, your piece got sent back to start and must work its way all over again.

5. A good piece of advice is to get your pieces onto your home board as quickly as possible. Only when all your checkers are on the home board will you be able to bear off.

Some reminders to master movement before we end: As opposed to chess your checkers always move forward. You can only land on empty points or blots. And you're not allowed to add up the numbers of the dice and move as much points up the board. Each die on a given turn is an individual move. If all places where you can go in a die roll is blocked you forfeit that move.

It will take time and some practice in mastering movement in backgammon. Keep these movement rules in mind and the little tips here can help you out. Remember to master movement first before going on to strategies.