Question about hitting in BG

evilari · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 17

I’m hoping that someone can enlighten me…

The other day I was playing a game of backgammon and was winning. I was bringing all of my checkers into my home board. One roll forced me to hit my opponent on the way into my home board. However, I had a lot of exposed checkers in my home board and didn’t really want to deal with an opposing checker on the bar that could potentially hit me back to the bar and cause me to give up my advantage.

My question is whether or not I have an option to leave my opponent’s checker on the board if it is more advantageous to my game. I thought that hitting was a strategic move and that you only had to use it when you wanted to. I had no other possible move than that one and just didn’t want to do anything that might set my game back.

Thanks! Any information will be greatly appreciated!

Rail · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

Sorry, but if you land on a blot you MUST send it to the bar—no matter what. Even if you land on it “on your way” to another point, you still must send it to the bar.

In the future, it’s a good idea to work on strategy within your home board just in case an incident like this occurs. If you have made points, or even a blockade in your home board it can sometimes be to your advantage to hit your opponent and trap him there while you have the chance to either get all of your checkers to your home board or even finish the game! After all, finishing the game with an opposing checker in your home board or on the bar is an even greater win.

Hope this was helpful for you…