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Backgammon Books

A practical way to become a winner at backgammon is to glean instruction from the best players. Some of the backgammon world’s highest awards have written books to assist players both novice and advanced.

A good book by a backgammon expert can provide game-changing information at a reasonable price which players (and would-be players) can absorb at their own pace. The Gammon Press store stocks essential reads by Bill Robertie and Kit Woolsey, along with the works of Bob Wachtel, Peter Bell and others. If you want to improve your backgammon game, this is the place to start.

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Playing the Containment Game

White – Pips 35 (-56)

Black – Pips 91 (+56)
Black to Play 2-1
Let’s suppose you hold an anchor in your opponent’s board. Dutifully you hang on and wait for your shot. The shot comes and you hit it. Huzzah! Now what?

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A Tactic Against a Back Game

White – Pips 190 (+68)

Black – Pips 122 (-68)
Black to Play 5-2
In this position Black has established a solid grip. He’s escaped all his back checkers, built his 4-point and his 7-point, and leads the race by 68 pips (122-190) before rolling.

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Playing a Busted Back Game

White – Pips 77 (-109)

Black – Pips 186 (+109)
Black to Play 6-2
In this position Black finds himself at the tail end of an ace-deuce back game. Things seemed promising for a while, then not so good, then downright awful. Now, with seven men trapped behind a full prime and his board completely shot, Black has a 6-2 to play.

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Pay Now or Pay Later

White – Pips 138 (+59)

Black – Pips 79 (-59)
Black to Play 5-1
This position shows White playing a well-timed holding game while Black is struggling to clear his points and get his men home. Black leads in the race by just over 60 pips, so it’s always been highly likely that he’s would have to leave a shot or two unless he rolled a useful set of doubles. Now Black has reached his first key decision point. Out of spares, he can still play safe, but he may not want to.

With the 5-1, Black has just three reasonable plays. Let’s take a look at them.

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An Early Blitz

White – Pips 179 (+44)

Black – Pips 135 (-44)
Black to Play 6-4

In this game Black launched a blitz after a few moves were made on both sides, and now White is in serious trouble with two men up in the air facing a four-point board with more blots floating around. Black’s 6-4 gives him several excellent options; his job now is not to get too excited, but to just find the most efficient way to bring the game home.

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Hit loose or make an anchor?

White – Pips 168 (=)

Black – Pips 168 (=)
A. Black to Play 3-2

In Position A, Black has two choices: he can enter and hit on the 5-point, or he can enter and make the anchor on the 22-point. To hit or not to hit: what’s right?

The 5-point is a strong point. In the abstract, it’s the best point there is, so hitting to make the 5-point later is often a good idea. But making an anchor is a good idea too, and very often correct. If we could only do one of these good things, we’d do it. But here we can do either but not both, so we have to pick and choose.

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