Vic Morawski: Hi, I am Vic and today we are introducing you to the game of Backgammon. Back games are very complicated, but we are going to look at, at least some of the highlights of a back game and what it is. The game plan that you see illustrated here is what is called a back game. Now the very word Backgammon seems to suggest back game, but don't let that mislead you because there are some reasons why a back game is not necessarily the game plan you think of from roll one. But how is this winning game plan? White has most of white checkers off. What is blue going to try to do to win?
Well, a back game consist first of all in holding at least two points, deep in your opponent's home board and this could be as it's illustrated here the two and three points, you might hold the one and three points, you might hold the one and two points. But they should be deep and what you are looking for is a situation like you see has just opened up; white just rolled badly and had to leave a shot.
Now in a situation like this if you hold two points deep in your opponent's home board, it is very hard for your opponent to bear off all of his or her checkers successfully without leaving at least one shot. So here white is a favorite to leave a shot and you have a double shot that is there are two numbers, in this case twos and threes that will hit this blot. You are a favorite to hit it and so what you would like to do is hit this blot, if you roll say a two and on the other side of the board, if you are playing a back game you are trying to build up a very good welcoming committee for that checker when you hit it. That is you want to have either a prime or semi-prime or as close to a close board as possible. So given that the word Backgammon sounds like back game, why don't I try to make this something that I am aiming at from the very beginning, not even worry about getting hit. Drop those blots in front of my opponent because if I get hit, I can always go into a back game. Well there are some reasons why back games are more of a fall back position, something you might find yourself for getting into, as your only hope of wining the game and not so much something you aim for at the very beginning. What happens if I don't hit this shot? Well let's suppose white gets off two checkers next time and then to the next time it is very easy to get either gammoned or even Backgammoned if you lose in a back game because by definition you usually have a lot of your own checkers back in your opponent's home board.
So, this is one reason why you try to avoid them. If you lose a back game you are very likely to get gammoned or even Backgammoned, but still my opponent was a favorite to leave a shot. I am favorite to hit it. I have got a good welcoming committee here; why not go for this game plan? Well certainly there are situations where you should, but another thing to look at in a back game is what has to happen here for blue to win?
Note at the very time when blue is getting that good shot, blue has to have a good board built up on the other side. That is the two things have to be coordinated very well. In truth and actual fact it is a very hard balancing act to get things working on both sides of the board in a back game such that when you are getting your shot you have also got a good board built up. Next we will look at a few of the reasons why you should not necessarily be going into a back game, your game plan from the first roll of the game.