Understanding Backgammon Blitz
Playing the backgammon blitz is fun and also rewarding, and involves knowing when to hit your opponent, how to build primes, and much more factors covered in this backgammon game guide.
The backgammon blitz is an attack on one or more of the opponent's checkers, while trying to close as many backgammon points in your home board as possible, so your opponent has to stay on the bar. Until these rows are set, you constantly hit on your opponent's checkers, repeatedly sending him to the board.
The name of the backgammon blitz comes from the second world war German attack on England, when London was bombed over and over again. The success of a blitz occurs if you hit your oppponent, send them to the bar, and then completely block your home board. In this case the opponent is blocked and cannot move until you clear one of the home board points, and the turn then automatically goes to you. This kind of backgammon blitz is called a closeout.
A closeout - A successful blitz
The backgammon blitz fails if the opponent succeeds to make an anchor, meaning making a certain point in your board.
If there is no checker on the bar, and the opponent holds only two points on his home board, then you can accept a double. If the opponent has three points on the board, then you should consider rejecting the double and losing, unless you too can hold you're opponent's checkers and possibly achieve a backgammon blitz.
Creating a Backgammon Blitz
The first important step on the way to making a first rate backgammon blitz is to spread your checkers across the board. Of course, it is preferred to make a point with two or more checkers, so you can't be hit. Nevertheless, you can open a point with only one checker, and thus have more playing options and more rolls to maneuver, eventually making more points.
After hitting a checker make sure to secure your checker
Two important things to remember about this backgammon blitz strategy:
- Make sure the point you make with one checker is far away from the hitting reach of your opponent (preferred to be more than 6 points).
- Be careful of exposed checkers if your opponent is trying to create a backgammon prime on his home board, because he might try to make a backgammon blitz, the same as you are.
The next step in creating the blitz is twofold:
1. Make as many points on your home board as possible.
2. At the same time try and hit your opponent.
Doubling in a Backgammon Blitz Game
After you start with a backgammon blitz, the right time to make a double is very important. The right time is usually when your opponent fails to enter the home board from the bar, and you already make two or more home board points.
Doubling is even more important to do with backgammon blitz games because of the Jacoby rule, which states you cannot win a game of gammon if you have not doubled at least once. This is why the double should be done quite early in the backgammon blitz.
Felicity Stone - Technical Writer
