Bill Robertie's Blog

Bill Robertie welcomes the opportunity to share his knowledge of backgammon with experienced players and beginners alike.

On his blog, Robertie publishes set and equipment reviews, creates quiz contests and provides free lessons. He would be remiss not to include his Robertie’s Rules! He also educates readers of the Gammon Press blog on the history of the game, offers backgammon instruction and more.

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How to Play the Opening in Backgammon Part 1 now available

Mar 15, 2020 | Backgammon Books

I’m pleased to announce that my new book, How to Play the Opening in Backgammon, Part 1, has been published and is available for purchase here at the Gammon Press. To order, click here.

Robertie How to Play The book is built around the kinds of typical choices that players face in the opening part of the game. For example: you throw a number that can be used to make the 5-point or the 20-point. Which point do you make? You throw a number that can make the 20-point or hit in the outfield. What’s right? A few opening plays are forced, but the non-forced plays boil down to choices like this. How do you make these decisions?

Unfortunately for people just learning the game, choices like this can’t be reduced to simple slogans like “When in doubt, make the 20-point.” When a real choice exists for an opening play, the answer will hinge on a number of factors which in varying degree will be contributing to the ultimate decision. Here are some of the ideas that bear on opening decisions:

> What’s the race? A significant racing lead favors plays that don’t leave blots and plays that contribute to escaping the back checkers. Trailing in the race favors plays that maximize contact.

> Does one play make a point? A point is an asset that may last a long time. During every turn that you hold a point is a turn where that point is restricting some of your opponent’s rolls. For a point-making play not to be best, the alternative needs to create some powerful assets or reduce some major liability.

> Has your opponent made a blocking point? If so, splitting rises in value.

> Do you have a stripped outside point? If so, adding a spare will increase its value.

> Do you have a stacked point? Unstacking it will improve your position.

These and other ideas will factor into the decision-making for any non-forced play.

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I’ve had a number of requests to show the Table of Contents for Part 1, so here it is.

Chapter 1: The Opening Move

Chapter 2: The Reply to the Opening Move

Chapter 3: The 5-Point
3.1 The 5-Point or the 20-Point?
3.2 The 5-Point or the 21-Point?
3.3 The 5-Point or the 4-Point?
3.4 The 5-Point or the 3-Point?
3.5 The 5-Point or an Outside Point?
3.6 The 5-Point or the 7-Point?
3.7 Make the 5-Point, Breaking the 7 or 8-Point?
3.8 The 5-Point or Some Other Improvement?
3.9 Make the 5-Point or Hit Somewhere? – 1
3.10 Make the 5-Point or Hit Somewhere? – 2
3.11 Make the 5-Point or Hit Two Checkers?

Chapter 4: The 20-Point
4.1 The 20-Point or the 4-Point?
4.2 The 20-Point or the 9-Point?
4.3 Make the 20-Point or Hit? – 1
4.4 Make the 20-Point or Hit? – 2

Chapter 5: The 4-Point
5.1 Make the 4-Point or Hit?
5.2 Make the 4-Point or Double-Hit?
5.3 Make the 4-Point or a Good Anchor?
5.4 Make the 4-point, Breaking the 8-Point?

The opening in backgammon is a big subject, and trying to fit it all into a single book would have been too unwieldy. The book will appear in three parts, spaced about three months apart. Look for Part 2 sometime in June.

Movie Recommendation

Mar 1, 2020 | Backgammon Generally

Stuck indoors in these trying times? Cabin fever starting to close in? Getting uncomfortable watching The Andromeda Strain and too scared to watch the market?

For a change of pace with a backgammon theme, try watch a little-known but unexpectedly charming film called The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner. If you can’t find it on a streaming service, Amazon usually has it in stock. You won’t regret it.

Priming a Back Game

Feb 15, 2020 | Backgammon Problems: Back Games

White – Pips 175 (+65)

Black – Pips 110 (-65)
Black to Play 3-2
The lesson of this position is simple: don’t make blocking points against a back game unless there’s some chance of actually blocking your opponent.

Playing a Bad Back Game

Feb 1, 2020 | Backgammon Problems: Back Games

White – Pips 136 (-27)

Black – Pips 163 (+27)
Black to Play 5-4
Back games are, in my view, the most interesting category of backgammon positions. Obvious plays are often wrong and counter-intuitive plays abound. Some real insight and experience are often needed to find your way to the right play.

This position is not an especially difficult problem, although most players will get it right for the wrong reason.

Playability

Jan 15, 2020 | Backgammon Problems: Middle Game

White – Pips 123 (+7)

Black – Pips 116 (-7)
Black to Play 3-2
This position comes from the late middle game. White is on the bar without an anchor, falling behind in the race and in some danger of being closed out. Meanwhile Black has a couple of checkers stuck behind a 4-prime. Black needs to escape but he needs to close his board as well, so he’s under constant pressure each turn to get something done.

When to Break a 6-Prime

Jan 1, 2020 | Post-Ace-Point Games

White – Pips 32 (-96)

Black – Pips 128 (+96)
Black to Play 4-5In our blog post of November 15 we discussed the various stages of a containment game, and outlined some rules for guiding your play. Leading off the rules was an important one: Don’t break your 6-prime!

Running off an Anchor

Dec 16, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Holding Game

White – Pips 67 (-22)

Black – Pips 89 (+22)
Black to Play 5-3
One-way holding games are, for the most part, pretty easy to play. You hold onto your anchor, watch your opponent try to clear points, wait for a shot, and then hopefully hit it. Alternatively, you roll a 6-6 or 5-5 somewhere in this process and move into a race where you’re close to even or maybe a little ahead.

Playing a Random 6 from the Bar

Dec 3, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Early Game

White – Pips 168 (=)

Black – Pips 168 (=)
Black to Play 6-2
This position shows a typically awkward moment in the early game. Black’s game is temporarily a little loose, and now he throws a 2-6 from the bar.

Sometimes a six from the bar will allow us to do something obvious and good, like hitting a blot or building a point. When we can’t do anything good, we’re usually faced with a choice among several unappetizing alternatives. That’s the case here. We have four legal sixes: 8/2, 13/7, 21/15, and 22/16. None look great, but we have to pick one. Let’s set up some guidelines and see if they can lead us to the least unappealing six.

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.

An Early Blitz

Sep 15, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Blitzes

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.

Hit loose or make an anchor?

Sep 1, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Early Game

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.

Playing a Middle Game Blitz

Aug 15, 2019 | Backgammon Problems: Blitzes

In backgammon, the term ‘blitz’ refers to a position where one side is caught on the bar without an anchor, and the other side is trying to close him out before he can get in and organize his defenses. If the attacking side is successful, the result is often a gammon. If the defender can get in, he’ll usually save the gammon and may quickly take the advantage, especially if his opponent has become overextended. Blitzes are an important class of positions, and the aspiring player needs to understand them well.

Blitz positions fall into three main categories. The first is the familiar early game blitz, where one side (say, White) runs out or splits his back men and Black then throws a double, making a couple of inner points while sending White to the bar. When White dances, we’re in an early blitz situation. Most of these positions are doubles and takes, although there are exceptions, depending on how many builders are available to continue the blitz and how many vulnerable checkers the defender has.

Phillip Vyvian Martyn, 1938-2019

Aug 6, 2019 | Backgammon Generally

Phillip grew up in England, attended Sherborne School, spent three years as an officer in the British Army, serving in Germany, and finished his education at Lincoln College, Oxford. During those years “Phil” became an excellent Rugby player, representing his county, Cornwall, and capped by the Greyhounds, the Oxford University second fifteen – for those interested he played fullback. Further in that vein he also became an excellent skier, and did in fact live for some years in Switzerland.

Post university Phillip Martyn began to travel, Europe first and then the USA, eventually living in New York City. It was there and then, in the early to mid-1960s, that he (and I) learned backgammon, and swiftly got hooked. Phil struck up a camaraderie with Ted Bassett a smooth and amiable golf and backgammon expert, whose own year divided into segments — Palm Beach, St Moritz, Monte Carlo, Biarritz and the airports between. Phil saw nothing wrong with that and so for the next three decades his lifestyle was set.