Cash game, White owns the cube.

White to play 6-3.

Checker play in holding games is generally a pretty simple matter. When you’re holding onto an anchor and you’re way behind in the race, you try to follow three rules:

1) Keep your anchor as long as you can.

2) Run off your anchor when the alternative is breaking your board.

3) Run off the anchor if staying raises your gammon chances a lot.

If you’re familiar with these rules, you’ll be able to handle most normal holding game positions well.

Things get trickier when you have a third checker back. The third checker can generate more potential shots; it can also get you gammoned if Black can point on the checker and you get stuck on the bar a long time. This position shows a typical situation: Should White stay to get more shots, or run to eliminate gammon chances?

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Cash game, center cube.

White to play 5-2.

Here we have a position from the tail end of a mutual holding game. These positions typically arise as follows:

> Both sides make an advanced anchor in the opening.

> Both sides bring down some builders from the midpoint and make a few blockading points.

Neither side ever rolls a big double that would allow it to escape the back men safely.

>Both sides slowly dismantle their blocking points and build inner board points behind the opponent’s anchor.

> Crunch time! Both sides start to face tricky decisions about when to leave the anchor.

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Cash game. Black owns the cube. White on move.

White to play 6-2.

Extreme Gammon (XG) is the most useful tool ever invented for improving at backgammon. It’s both the strongest commercially available backgammon software, and, when used properly, the best teacher.

Getting the most out of XG’s teaching ability, however, requires a little thought and planning. In this post I’ll give an example of how using XG’s power, combined with a little critical thinking, can help you patch weak spots in your game.

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Cash game. Center cube. White on move.

Should White double? If he doubles, should Black take or drop?

Here’s an interesting cube position. Black has an anchor on White’s 5-point. White’s ahead in the race by 21 pips, 117-138. White also has a pretty good 4-point board. Black’s remaining checkers are in play and his board is in the process of forming.

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Cash game, center cube.

White to play 1-1.

This position shows a slightly unusual mutual holding game structure. Both sides have anchors, White on his 21-point and Black on his 18-point. Right now White trails in the race by 16 pips (123 to 107), but trailing in the race isn’t much of a disadvantage in these positions because the side that’s ahead in the race usually has to break anchor and expose himself first.

White has two decisions to make:

(1) Should he move the checkers on the 21-point or the 13-point, or leave them alone?

(2) What’s the best way to improve his inner board?

The first question is the easiest. Since White trails in the race, he wants maximum contact. The way to get maximum contact is to stay back as much as possible. so White doesn’t want to move the checkers on the 21 and 13-points unless there’s no recourse. In this case it’s even more important than usual to keep both points, because Black’s sixes are horrible if White stays where he is. Notice that in the current position 6-1, 6-3, and 6-4 all leave shots, while 6-2 and 6-6 continue stacking checkers.

So let’s leave those checkers on the 21 and 13-points alone and concentrate on the inner board.

If White wants to play only in his inner board, the obvious first choice is 4/1 6/5, building a 4-point board. It’s a perfectly safe play, and if White gets a shot next turn and hits, he won’t have to worry about an exposed blot. However, although it’s perfectly safe, it’s also poor technique. When building a board to prepare for future shots, the right idea is to build it as quickly as possible by slotting, covering, slotting, and covering. Playing 4/1 6/5 creates a 4-point board, but making the important fifth point will take a while.

A better try is 6/4 3/2(2), which creates a 4-point board with the fifth point slotted. Still, that slot on the ace-point is a little hard to cover. Better still is 6/4 3/1! which moves the slot backwards, where it’s in direct range of the 8-point. Now White has a 4-point board with the fifth point slotted and easy to cover. That approach gives him the best chance of having a 5-point board when he finally hits a shot.

One of the most common middle game structures in backgammon is the holding game, where at least one side has made an advanced anchor, and the other side has to get his checkers home while leaving as few shots as possible. Holding games are even more common now than previously, because of the tendency to split the back men with most opening rolls, which tends to result in anchors for both sides.

Here are a couple of examples of interesting holding game problems:

(A) Cash game, center cube.

White to play 6-2.

(B) Cash game, White owns the cube.

White to play 3-3.

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