Making Points

In the game of backgammon a single move can determine the outcome of whether you win or lose the game. It is important to know and make good decisions regarding which of your men to move and how many spaces to move him across the board.

While moving your men across the board and trying to get all your men into your home board you can improve on your chances of winning by creating points. Making a point is an ideal way to give you that much needed edge over your opponent. It creates for you a position of power on the board itself. A point is a space on the backgammon board that you get to own for yourself and your opponent player cannot overstep on it when moving with one backgammon man.

To understand the dynamics of creating a point it is necessary to first comprehend what a “point” really is. A player can make a “point” by moving two or more of his backgammon men onto a single space on the board. This space then becomes his own and restricts the movements of the opponent player. The opposing player cannot bring his counter or backgammon man to rest on that point or to even touch down upon it if he is moving one man for the sum of his total dice throw.

When there is only one backgammon man or counter on the space in the board that space is called a blot. If a player moves one of his men onto a blot of the opposite player the blot is hit. This man has then to be removed from the board and placed on the bar to await re-entry into the game. The backgammon man that has taken a hit is then forced to make his re-entry from the opposing side’s home board. The player who has taken the hit cannot play again until he has brought his backgammon man back into the play of the game.

Re-entry of the “hit” piece has to be made on a point that is equal to at least one of the numbers that the player has cast on the dice. However if the re-entry point is owned by an opponent then the play cannot be made and the player has to wait longer to make his re-entry.

Players try their best to make points in a consecutive line on their board as this gives them a monopoly of the board should a man from the opposing side be behind them. The goal is to make six consecutive points. Any player who has managed to do this has been very successful and is considered to have completed what is known as a “prime.”

Completing a Prime causes the opposing players backgammon man to get trapped behind the six consecutive points as there is no other way out for him but to get hit if that is the only move available to him.

Chester Houndswell