By Valentin Updated strategy intermediate game plans
A back game is a defensive plan where you hold two anchors deep in the opponent's home board and wait for a late shot while the opponent bears in. It is a last resort: good timing turns it into wins, bad timing usually turns it into gammons.
This page assumes you know the rules, including what a gammon costs. The back game is the most extreme of the four game plans, and the one most players should reach only when the alternatives are worse.
Every Orion guide, from the setup to the cube, is on the Learn page if you want to fill a gap first.
What is a back game in backgammon?
You hold two points in the opponent's home board, usually low ones, and you are well behind in the race. The opponent has to bring all fifteen checkers home past your anchors and bear them off in front of them. Sooner or later, the theory goes, the awkward numbers come and they leave a blot. You hit it, contain it with your own board, and win a game that the race said was lost.
A single anchor on the opponent's 1 point is not a back game; that is an ace-point game, which is a weaker cousin. A single higher anchor while the race is close is a holding game. The back game is defined by two anchors and a big race deficit together.
Which anchors are best for a back game?
Number the points from your side, so the opponent's 1, 2 and 3 points are your 24, 23 and 22 points. The two classic back games hold the opponent's 2 and 3 points, or their 1 and 3 points. Backgammon writers have argued about which of those two is better since the 1970s, and both remain the standard recommendations.
The reasoning is about where the opponent's blots will appear. Anchors that are adjacent or one point apart cover the same bearing-in area from two angles; anchors spread too wide leave gaps. Higher pairs, such as the opponent's 3 and 4 points, behave more like a holding game and need less timing; very deep pairs need the most.
What is timing in a back game?
Timing is the question of whether you can wait. While you hold your anchors, every roll you make has to be played by your other checkers. It is the same timing problem as in a priming game, seen from the other side. If your other checkers run out of useful moves before the opponent leaves a shot, you are forced to pile checkers deep in your own home board, on your 1 and 2 points, and when the shot finally comes you have no board left to contain the checker you hit.
This is why a back game wants to be far behind in the race, and why being hit again can actually help: a checker sent back recirculates and gives you more moves to make. Your pip count tells you how much time you have. If you are only a little behind, you are playing a back game too early, and the anchors will crack before they are useful.
When should you play a back game?
- When you have been hit several times and are far behind in the race, so racing is hopeless.
- When you already hold, or can quickly make, a second anchor deep in the opponent's board.
- When your remaining checkers have room to wait: spares in the outfield, not already stacked in your home board.
- Not by choice from a normal position. Steering for a back game when a holding game or a race is available gives up far more than it gains.
Why do back games lose gammons?
Because when they fail they fail completely. If no shot comes, you are left with two anchors deep in enemy territory and a pile of checkers in your own board, and the opponent bears off most of their checkers before yours even get home. If a shot comes and you miss, or hit with no board, the result is often the same. A back game can win a fair share of games and still lose many gammons, which counts double, and that trade is what makes it a last resort.
What are the most common back game mistakes?
- Starting too early, when you are not far enough behind to keep both anchors until the shot comes.
- Burying checkers on your own 1 and 2 points, so that the home board you need after the hit has already collapsed.
- Running one anchor at the first scare, which leaves a single deep anchor and the worst of both plans.
- Accepting a double you should pass. Back game positions often look more hopeful than they are, and the gammon risk is part of the price of the take.
How do you play against a back game?
Bring your checkers home safely before you start taking them off. Clear points from the back, keep your spares flexible, avoid gaps in your home board, and when you do leave a shot, prefer the one that is least likely to be hit. The back-game player needs you to make one mistake under pressure; most of the work is not giving it to them.
How does a back game fit with the other plans?
It is the end of a road. A blitz that fails can leave the attacker scrambling, a priming game whose wall breaks becomes a holding game, and a holding game that loses its race badly can become a back game. Seeing the transition coming is what lets you choose the best version of each plan instead of falling into the worst one.
Try the patience it takes in a real match: Orion is free on iPhone and Android, and every roll can be checked at orion.arthea.ai/verify.