Backgammon Strategy Terms

Backgammon is a game that involves strategy and skill. A beginner moves up in skill and rank as strategies are learned and mastered during a game. Like every other strategy game out there, there are a host of jargons that come to play in backgammon. Some of these technical terms go along with the strategy part of backgammon.

Most of these strategy terms in backgammon are rather descriptive so we already have a hint as to what they mean at first glance. Here's a list of backgammon terms when we talk about strategy.

Our first backgammon strategy term is anchoring. An anchor holds something in place, so goes anchoring in backgammon terminology. This is a move/strategy where we place at least two checkers on one point. By doing so a player practically owns that point on the backgammon board. There are specific points on the board that strengthens your strategy.

Priming is our next strategy term. This means we line up blocking points in a row to form a prime. The longer your prime, the better it is for you (since it makes it harder for your opponent to escape any checkers). Related to this strategy term is the term "closed board". A closed board is where you have made a six-point prime (a prime consisting of six blocking points). Any opposing checker sent to the bar will not be able to enter until you break that prime.

Our next strategy term is distribution. You guessed right if you think this jargon refers to how your backgammon checkers are spread on the board. The principle is that to maintain a good distribution you should only occupy one point with two to three backgammon checkers only. The player who keeps an even distribution will have better flexibility (our next strategy term).

Flexibility means to position your checkers insomuch as if a roll on a dice doesn't fit your current plans, you can still accommodate the awkward result by your mere formidable position on the backgammon board.

Duplication, our next strategy term, is a technique in backgammon. This means to reduce the good rolls of your opponent. This is where your opponent's position is so much that two really good moves require the same result on the dice.

Our next strategy term is exposure. Like what this word really means, we expose our checkers to enemy fire. In fact we invite our opponent to hit our blots (which means leaving more blots for your opponent to hit). The exact opposite of this strategy term is consolidating.

Our last strategy term is hitting. This means landing one of your checkers (an offensive move) on an opposing blot and sending that checker to the bar.

These are the basic strategy ` used during the action in backgammon. The next time you hear or read about these things you'll know what they really mean.