Backgammon Straight Race

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The backgammon straight race, which is also called a pure race, is the closing stage of the backgammon board game. The aim of backgammon is to be the first player in a position to bear off (or remove) all their checkers from the board. Before a player is able to bear off, they are engaged in a fierce struggle with their opponent.

Players try to hit each other’s lone checkers or blots, and they build primes to blockage the opponent’s checkers and thus hinder their progress in bringing their checkers into a position from where they can bear them off. However, the point of time comes when the backgammon straight race can commence. This occurs when, instead of hitting or building primes, the players place all their efforts into bringing all their checkers into their home areas of the board ready to be born off.

In the course of the backgammon straight race players hope to throw double fives or double sixes on the dice to assist them bringing their counters back to the home area as quickly as possible. Although, as stated, this is not a stage of the game where players are trying to hit or blockade their opponent’s checkers, they still do well to keep their eyes open. The last thing a player wants to happen is to have one of their checkers hit during the backgammon straight race stage, and then they have the trouble of bringing the counter back into the game and once again trying to bear it off.