Home / Backgammon / Strategy

Backgammon strategy

Backgammon is a race with fights along the way. Know who is ahead by counting pips. Make points, the best ones close to home, and string them together so the other side's back checkers can't get past. Leave blots only where few rolls can hit them. And use the doubling cube when you're well ahead, before the lead slips away.

By Emre Özen, updated October 20, 2026. The opening table comes from Tom Keith's opening guide on bkgm.com, the cube advice from articles by Peter Bell and Bob Townsend there, and the other numbers from our own code and 600 games between two copies of our strong computer player. New to the game? Start with how to play backgammon.

Count the race first

Your pip count is the total distance your checkers still have to travel: add up the point number of every checker (a checker on the bar counts 25). Both sides start at 167. The lower count is ahead in the race. Our game shows both counts next to the names, and they change as you move, so you can see what a move costs before you finish your turn.

The count tells you what kind of game you're in. Well ahead in the race, every exchange of hits is a chance for the other side to catch up, so getting home safely matters most. Well behind, the race alone won't win it: you need contact, such as an anchor in the other home board where you can wait for a shot.

Opening moves

Tom Keith's guide on bkgm.com lists the best play for each opening roll from computer rollouts, where a program plays each candidate move out many times and keeps score. These are the plays from his rollouts, and our strong computer uses this table for its own first move.

Read "13/11" as "from point 13 to point 11". 5 of these plays make a new point straight away: 3-1, 4-2, 5-3, 6-1 and 6-4. For several rolls Keith's notes say the top plays come out very close (for 6-4 he says nobody knows for sure which is best), so the difference between them is small. Doubles can't be the opening roll, since a tie is rolled again.

Blots: how often they get hit

Every blot is a gamble, and you can count the odds. The table shows how many of the 36 possible rolls let one checker hit a blot a given number of pips in front of it, with nothing in the way.

Method: our own code counts each of the 36 rolls (a double counts once, any other roll twice, since 5-3 and 3-5 are different rolls), one shooting checker, an empty board between it and the blot. Beyond 12 pips only a double can hit, at 15, 16, 18, 20 and 24 pips away, 1 roll in 36 each. Blocked points along the way lower these numbers, and two or more shooting checkers raise them. Our computer player counts every shot this way, for every move it considers.

Two things stand out. Within 6 pips a blot is hit about a third of the time or more, and 6 away is the worst of all (17 rolls). Seven or more away, it drops to 6 rolls or fewer. So when you must leave a blot, leave it far from the other side's checkers, or where being hit costs little: a blot hit near the start of its journey loses only a few pips.

Points, primes and anchors

A point you hold is a place you can land safely and a place the other side can't. Points in your home board also make it harder for a hit checker to come back in: with 4 of your 6 home points made, a checker on the bar can only enter with the 2 numbers you left open. Our computer values your 5-point most, then your 6-point and the bar point (your 7-point), then your 4-point: they block the other side's back checkers and close your board.

Points in a row form a prime. Since a single die moves at most 6, a checker behind six points in a row can't get past at all until the prime breaks. Five in a row can only be jumped from the point right behind them, with a 6, and only when the point just past them is open. That's why primes are built in front of the other side's back checkers.

An anchor is a point you hold in the other side's home board. It's a safe place for your back checkers to wait, and a hit checker of yours always has somewhere to enter. Our computer values an anchor on your 20-point (the other side's 5-point) most, then your 21-point.

Hitting

A hit sends a checker back to the start: it loses every pip it had traveled, up to 24, plus the time it spends on the bar. The farther it had come, the bigger the hit. Before you hit, look at what you leave behind. A hit that leaves your own blot in front of their entering checker gives them a shot back, and the stronger their home board, the more a return hit costs you, since it's harder to come back in.

Bearing off

Bob Townsend's basics series on bkgm.com puts it simply: "set up as smooth a bear off as you can." Spread your checkers across your home points rather than piling them deep on one, since gaps mean wasted rolls. He also flags checkers stacked on your 1-point and 2-point as wasted pips: they need a roll to come off but use only a small part of it.

While the other side still has a checker back, remember the rule: a checker hit during the bear-off has to come all the way around again before you can take off another, so a hit then is very costly.

When to double, and when to take

Peter Bell's article "The Doubling Cube" on bkgm.com explains the key number. When you're doubled, dropping costs you 1 point for sure. Taking risks 2 points to win 2. Ignoring gammons, you should take if you win more than 25% of the time, and drop otherwise. Owning the cube after you take is worth a little more, since you can double back later if the game turns. Gammons work the other way: if you could lose double, you need better chances to take.

Bob Townsend gives the doubling side: double when you have an advantage, with the window running from about 50% to about 75% winning chances. Double too late and the other side simply drops, and you win 1 point when you might have won more.

Our strong computer follows those numbers. It estimates its chance of winning from its rating of the position (the curve was fitted to our test games), doubles from about 70%, and holds back when it's so far ahead with gammon chances that playing on is worth more. It takes with an estimated 25% or better, 30% when a gammon looks likely. In a pure race it uses the pip count: it doubles with a lead of about 8% of its own count (9% to redouble) and takes when it is no more than about 12% behind.

Our numbers

Method: games between copies of our own computer players, seats swapped every other game, October 2026, without the cube unless stated. Computer players aren't people, and ours is a hand-written player, not an expert, so treat these as one benchmark rather than how expert games go.

Practice with hints

The Hint button in our backgammon game shows the move the strong computer would make, numbered on the board in order. You get 6 per game. Try your own move first, then compare.

Sources

• Tom Keith, "Backgammon: How to Play the Opening Rolls", bkgm.com (Backgammon Galore), April 2006: the best opening plays, from his rollouts.
• Peter Bell, "The Doubling Cube", bkgm.com, 1995: the 25% take point and the value of owning the cube.
• Bob Townsend, "Basics of Backgammon: The Cube and the Race" (part 3), bkgm.com, 2006: smooth bear-offs, wasted pips, and the doubling window.
• Shot counts and game results: our own code (src/games/backgammon in the site's code), October 2026.

Keep playing

• Play backgammonAgainst the computer or a friend, with pip counts and hints.
• How to playThe setup, moving, hitting, bearing off and the doubling cube.
• CribbageAnother classic for two, against the computer or a friend.
• Gin RummyMake sets and runs, knock low or go gin.
• FarkleRoll six dice, keep the scorers, and know when to stop.

Strategy for similar games: cribbage strategy, farkle strategy and dominoes strategy.