Bill Robertie’s Blog

Playing the Containment Game

Nov 15, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Endgames

White – Pips 35 (-56)

Black – Pips 91 (+56)
Black to Play 2-1Let’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?

A Tactic Against a Back Game

Nov 14, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Back Games, Uncategorized

White – Pips 190 (+68)

Black – Pips 122 (-68)
Black to Play 5-2In 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.

Playing a Busted Back Game

Oct 21, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Back Games

White – Pips 77 (-109)

Black – Pips 186 (+109)
Black to Play 6-2In 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.

Pay Now or Pay Later

Oct 1, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Holding Game

White – Pips 138 (+59)

Black – Pips 79 (-59)
Black to Play 5-1This 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.