By Valentin Updated strategy intermediate game plans
A blitz is an all-out attack on the checkers in your home board: you keep hitting and closing points until the opponent's checkers cannot come back in. It works when you have more builders near home than the opponent has anchors, and it fails when you run out of ammunition before the board is closed.
This page assumes you know the rules and how a hit checker re-enters from the bar.
Every Orion guide, from the setup to the cube, is on the Learn page if you want to fill a gap before reading on.
The blitz is one of the four game plans a backgammon game settles into. It is the most violent of them and the quickest to decide a game, one way or the other.
What is a blitz in backgammon?
A plan in which you attack the opponent's checkers in your home board, usually their back checkers or a blot they have just split, and keep attacking instead of tidying up. Every hit puts a checker on the bar, every point you close makes it harder to come back in, and the goal is a closed board: all six of your home points made, with at least one enemy checker still on the bar. It is the mirror image of the back game, where you are the one waiting deep in the other side's board.
The arithmetic of entering shows why it works. A checker on the bar fails to enter only when both dice show closed points. Against one closed point it stays out 1 time in 36. Against three it stays out 9 times in 36, a quarter of the time. Against five it stays out 25 times in 36, and against six it cannot come in at all. Each point you close does more damage than the one before.
When should you blitz?
When the opponent is weak in your home board and you are strong around it. Run through these five questions before you commit, because a blitz that stalls is very hard to rescue:
- Builders: count your checkers on your 4 to 11 points. The more of them can reach your home board next roll, the longer the attack can last.
- Points already made: two home points is a minimum, three is comfortable. Attacking against a one-point board mostly sends checkers back for a cheap re-entry.
- No enemy anchor: if they already hold two checkers on one of your home points, they have a safe landing spot and the blitz loses its teeth.
- Targets: a blot on your 4 or 5 point, or a second checker already on the bar.
- Return shots: check what the opponent hits if they do come in. A blitz that leaves three of your own blots in their range is a gamble, not a plan.
What does a good blitzing move look like?
The ideal is pointing on the blot: hitting with two checkers at once, so you send a checker to the bar and close the point it was on in the same move. Say you hold your 6 and 8 points and the opponent has split a back checker up to your 5 point. A roll of 3-1 plays 8/5 6/5, which hits and makes your 5 point, the most valuable point on the board, with nothing left for the opponent to aim at.
The second best thing is two checkers on the bar. Say you already own your 6, 5 and 4 points and hit a second blot. The opponent now has to enter both checkers before moving anything else, so for that turn they cannot make an anchor with outside checkers or hit you from elsewhere. You get free time to bring builders in and close the next point.
Should you hit loose or close a point?
This is the central blitz decision, and the default answer is close the point. A made point stays made; a checker hit loose can come back in and hit you back. Players new to attacking tend to hit everything in sight and leave blots on their own 2 and 3 points, and that is how promising attacks collapse.
The exception is when not hitting lets the opponent make an anchor. If their two back checkers sit on your 4 point and your 5 point, and next roll they will very likely make one of them, a loose hit that stops the anchor is often worth the risk. The reason to hit loose is always the same: the anchor would end your attack.
When does a blitz fail?
It fails when the builders run out. You hit, the opponent enters and hits back, and now your checkers are scattered with no structure to protect them, while theirs are safe in an anchor. A failed blitz is often worse than having never attacked, because the gammon risk has flipped to your side.
When the attack stalls, change plans rather than throwing more checkers forward. A half-built board with an enemy anchor in it is the start of a priming game, and the right moves are now the quiet ones that make points in front of that anchor.
How do you defend against a blitz?
- Anchor early. Two checkers on one of the opponent's home points cannot be hit and always give you a place to land. A high anchor, on their 4 or 5 point, is the best.
- Split your back checkers when the opponent has few builders, not after they have brought them down.
- When you enter from the bar, prefer the move that makes an anchor or covers a blot over the one that runs.
- Do not counter-attack with your last spare checkers. If you hit back and fail, you have nothing left to defend with.
What does the doubling cube have to do with a blitz?
A lot. Blitz positions change fast, and a successful attack usually wins a gammon, which counts double. That makes the moment just before the attack lands a strong time to double, and it means that when the opponent is already closed out, a double may come too late to be taken. If you hold the cube in a stalled blitz, be honest about how many shots you still have.
How can I practise blitzing?
Play it in real games and review the ones that went wrong. Look for the move where you hit loose and could have closed a point, and for the turn where you started attacking with only one point made. Orion is free on iPhone and Android, and every roll can be checked at orion.arthea.ai/verify.