Concrete Strategy Part 1: Build A Wall

Pee Wee Wiggins Audio  (Click here for a recording of Pee Wee Wiggins talking about backgammon strategy.)

Tip of the Moon: Published at the Crescent (when was the last crescent?? Ha, ha. Oops.)

The E Bob Oboe S. E. A. B. C. will take the liberty to publish a basic strategy guide. We start with the concrete basics to build a slab which you may use as a pad to launch your majestic rocket of strategy into the orbit of advanced play. Once there, moves and strategy become less and less certain to the point of peril. We have sent backgammon games into orbit before, and we have sent missions to the moon, but honestly, some of these missions failed miserably and caused many casualties. Making no guarantees of safety once you get there, let us help you launch into space:

To accomplish this, we turn to the advice of old people.  Our first guest expert is Pee Wee Wiggins.  Wiggins is 92 years old and living in South Dakota on his nephew's farm.  His favorite animals are goats and cats.  Here's Pee Wee:

Lesson #1: Trap your opponent with a wall.
Well hello everyone, and I hope this little message finds you well.  I'm a backgammon player, I've been one for many years, and I hope that I can tell you a little story to help you play the game better, or maybe just learn some of the rules.  Before we talk strategy, I've got a few words to share about the backgammon pieces.  These little guys have some strange quirks that you've just got to remember, or you'll end up in a pickle.  Now first of all, a piece can only move six points at a time.  Of course, a piece may get two, three, or four moves in one turn, but each one of these moves is at the most six spaces. They can't move more. They will never move 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12. You see, they'll only move what is shown on one die, and in backgammon the dice are market 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 

Now, when I was playin as a youngster, I used to mess up this rule all the time.  I'd try rolling, and I'd say, "oh look, I got an 8!" But you know what?  Those little backgammon pieces, they'd right up and tell me, "Pee Wee, that's not an 8, that's a 5-3, and if you think we're gonna move 8 well you better go take a flyin leap through a rollin doughnut, and then you can go suck an egg."  Well, I learned pretty quick that these pieces will not add the dice together.  I tried teachin em.  Yep, I even brought them to my school house with me and set them right down on my desk as I was addin my figures, but these pieces wouldn't hear one lick of it! 

To a backgammon piece, a roll of 5-3 isn't 8, it's 5 and 3.  Now like I said, any piece will move two times on your turn. Some might whine a little, but in my experience, most of them love the extra turn.    Whenever I roll doubles, at least three different pieces on my side are begging me to use all four moves on them! "Pick me, pick me!" they'd all be shoutin.  So if you do use two separate moves (or three or four!) on one piece, it might end up more than 6 points away from where they started, but each individual move is 6 or less.  And you can stick that rule in your back pocket, because it's oldern dirt and it aint goin nowhere.  So, uh, with a 5-3 roll, you can't move one piece 8, but you can move it 5 and then you can move it again, 3 more.

Now, we don't exactly know why these pieces won't move more than six at a time, because we don't know much about the emotions or motivation of backgammon pieces, nor is there a human field of science working toward understandin them so. Personally, I love to speculate about the lives of backgammon pieces, and I love making up new stories about why their quirks and various behaviors. Maybe it's a reflection of their preference for several snacks instead of large meals. Perhaps in a past life they were little propeller planes crossing the ocean by island hopping, but they sure aint large jets taking off in Los Angeles and flying non stop to Tokyo. 

Well, my niece, Emily Lime is her name, is studyin those little backgammon pieces.  I said before that there wasn't a human science studying them, but I guess she's fixin to start one.  Right now she's got to theories; the first one being that the pieces have their own religion, of which the guiding principle is "many small movements, not one large jump," and the second one being that these little pieces simply have a physical limitation, either they don't have the physical stamina to move farther than 6 spaces in one go or their vision can only see clearly for six points, and they wont move where they cannot see.

Irregardless of the reason, all this works out so that to cross a long distance, backgammon pieces must handle each die separately, and they can't make big jumps. And this here is the part you've got to listen to real close and don't tell no one about!  Because, you see, you can use this rule against your opponent! 

"Now how, Pee Wee?" I bet you're all thinking.  Well now just hold on a minute, and I'll tell you.  Imagine that you have two pieces on the talc, and your opponent has two on the iron.  Now, if they were to roll a 1-1, could they move?  Well...  NO, because all they have to move is just one number, 1, and that one is blocked!  And remember, the pieces can't move 2 or 3 or 4, because the dice say 1.  Those pieces on the iron only have one option, moving 1, and it's blocked by your team!  Listen and I bet you can hear 'em squealin like a stuck hog.  

Well now that you've got that picture in your mind, imagine that your opponent is still on the iron, but now you've got your entire home board all full up with pairs of two, and on top of that you've also got the bar point!  From the bar point all the way down to the talk, each and every point has two of your pieces.  A pretty sight, aint it?  Ok, now imagine any roll for your opponent.  Those dice are shaking around, ooh, they rolled a 6-5!  Well, can they move 6?  No sir, you've blocked the bar point.  Can they move 5?  No siree, you've blocked the adamantium.  But can they move 11, making the Lover's Leap?  HA! Not in a million years!  Go ahead and try 'til the cows come home, but those pieces will not add the dice.  And your opponent rolled 6 and 5, not 11.  If they rolled one die with 11 dots on it, then you better tell them to cut it out our you'll rat to their parents.  

And with any roll, even quadruple 6, they'll always be stuck!  Once you block the six points directly in front of them, they'll never move their pieces, no way and no how.

So there's the secret that can win it all for ya.  Trap your opponent by building a wall of six occupied points. Ok, well, have a good day, and keep up the practice.  I've played a lot of backgammon in my 92 years, and I'll say that if you keep practicing, you can get pretty good at this game.  So good job.

-Pee Wee Wiggins

Credits:
"Concerning Hobbits", The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino.
The first strategy and rule book I read was The Backgammon Book, by Jacoby and Crawford. Paul Magriel's book has been highly recommended to me.