Building Anchors in Backgammon

admin · Site Admin Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 862

If you are looking to strengthen your backgammon game, a great strategy is to build anchors in your opponent's home board. Building anchors in backgammon can really hinder your opponent's game, as well as strengthen your own game.

An anchor is an established defensive point within your enemy's home board. These points, which have two or more of your checkers on them, are called made points and your opponent cannot land on them. The more anchors you create in your opponent's home board, the harder it will be for them to enter their checkers to finish off the game. Therefore, building anchors in backgammon can be a fantastic defensive strategy.

Building anchors in backgammon can also help you by creating landing points for you when you have been hit and sent back to the bar. If your opponent has built a prime, or a defensive blockade within their home board then you may not have anyplace to enter the board. Therefore, you should set up anchors to serve as landing points for yourself, should you be hit.

If you see that creating anchors could be advantageous to your game you can re-circulate checkers. This means being hit intentionally in order to bring checkers back to the bar for the purpose of building anchors. You must enter hit checkers, or blots, through your opponent's home board and you can leave them there as anchors. Building anchors in backgammon is a great strategy for strengthening your game.