Reference · Quick lookups for the table

Reference

Hot tips, reminders, and all around study guide.

First roll of the game

Best Opening Rolls

Pick a roll and the board sets up the strongest known reply. Moved checkers are ringed. Doubles are not listed: a match opens with one die each, so a tie there is just a re-roll, never a turn.

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These are the plays modern rollouts and long-standing theory agree on for a cube game or the first roll of a match, from a fresh board. A few rolls have a second, nearly-as-good answer; where that is worth knowing it is noted under the board. Nothing here changes because of the cube, the match score, or anything already on the board, so treat it as a starting point once a game is actually underway.

Beyond the first roll

Checker-Play Cheat Sheet

Rules of thumb rather than fixed answers. Every one of them has an exception once the cube, the score, or the position gets specific, but they are right far more often than not, and they are the fastest way to stop guessing at the table.

Opening moves

Run when you can

A big early roll is often best spent getting a back checker out of danger before the other side builds an anchor against it. A checker that is already safe cannot be pointed on later.

Make your 5-point

The single most valuable point on the board for either side. Almost any roll that makes it is worth taking over a flashier-looking alternative.

Split with a plan

Splitting the back checkers only helps if it is aimed at a real point, ideally the golden anchor on the opponent's 5-point. A split that is not going anywhere is just two blots instead of one.

Keep the midpoint stocked

Stripping the 13-point down early trades flexibility for nothing. Leave enough checkers there to keep answering whatever the dice bring for a few more rolls.

Middle game

Build a wall, not a scatter

A run of consecutive points traps checkers far more effectively than the same number of points spread out. A prime is worth detouring for.

Hit loose with a follow-up

Leaving a blot to hit another blot is fine when there is a real next move behind it, a point to cover or a prime to build. Hitting purely to hit invites the same shot right back.

An anchor is worth its depth

The golden anchor on the opponent's 5-point buys real time. A slot on the ace point barely counts as an anchor at all; it holds the checker back without buying much safety.

Count before you race

A rough pip count before deciding to run for home or hold for a shot settles more decisions than any other single habit. Clearly ahead says race; clearly behind says hold and wait for contact.

Bearing off

Clear from the back

Clear the highest-numbered point still holding checkers before the lower ones. Clearing from the front first is the most common way to leave an avoidable gap.

Keep the points balanced

Stacking checkers unevenly across the home board makes a forced move more likely to leave a blot later. Spreading them out while there is still a choice pays off a few rolls on.

Stay safe while one is still out

If the opponent still has a checker in the home board, covering a blot is worth more than bearing off a checker faster. A single shot at this stage can turn the whole game around.

The cube changes the arithmetic

A play that is correct in a pure race can be wrong the moment a cube is sitting on the board. Contact is worth more, and safety is worth more, whenever there is still a double to give or take.

None of these override a position that clearly calls for something else. They are the plays to fall back on when nothing on the board is shouting for a different answer, which is most of the time.

The most misplayed die on the board

Cube Play Cheat Sheet

The checkers decide who is ahead. The cube decides how much that lead is worth. Rules of thumb for doubling, taking, and passing, with the same caveat as the rest of this page: the position always has the final word.

Doubling

Double before it is obvious

Waiting for a lead so clear the opponent has to pass gives away the chance to double at all. The window to cash in a good position closes well before that point.

Volatility favours the double

A position that could swing wildly on the next roll, contact still on, checkers still to be hit, is a better double than a steady one at the same rough equity. There will not always be another calm moment to do it in.

A race is simple arithmetic

With no contact left, the pip count is most of the decision. Roughly a 12-pip lead in a straight race is a double, and too far ahead is a double that should not be taken.

Do not double away your market

If the position is so good the opponent would pass anyway, doubling hands them an easy out at no cost to them. Sometimes the position is worth more played on for the gammon than cashed in early.

Taking or passing

Twenty-five percent is the line

Roughly, a take is correct with at least a one-in-four chance of winning the game from here. Below that, passing loses less over time than taking does.

Gammon risk tightens the take

A double where losing a gammon is live is worse to take than the raw winning chances suggest, since a gammon loss costs double whether the cube was turned or not.

Match score changes the number

Close to the end of a match, the value of a point is not fixed the way a single cube game assumes. Trailing by a lot can make a take correct with worse chances than usual; leading by a lot can make a pass correct with better chances than usual.

Holding the cube has its own value

A take that looks close on winning chances alone is often still correct, because keeping the cube means the option to redouble later if the game turns, an option a pass gives up for good.

None of these override a position that clearly calls for something else, the same as the checker-play rules above. They are the fast defaults for the common case, not a substitute for reading the board in front of you.

Which game are you actually playing

Basic Strategies

The checker-play and cube rules above answer "what do I do now." These five answer the question underneath that one: which kind of game the position actually calls for. Most games settle into one of them early and stay there.

Priming game

Build a wall of consecutive points to trap a back checker while racing the rest of the checkers home. The default plan when the dice are cooperating early and there is no reason yet to pick a fight.

Blitz

Attack every loose blot to close out the home board before the other side can escape or anchor. Worth reaching for with an early lead plus a shot already on the board, since it turns a small edge into a big one fast.

Holding game

Keep one advanced anchor, the golden anchor or the bar point, in the opponent's home board and wait for a shot later rather than committing to a race now. The fallback when slightly behind but not badly enough to need a back game.

Back game

Anchor on two or more deep points and play for a late shot, accepting a near-certain loss of the pip count along the way. Only worth choosing when already well behind in the race and a holding game is no longer realistic.

Racing game

No meaningful contact left: just count pips and roll the checkers home. The plan once a position has actually resolved into one, and where the cube sheet's pip-count rule of thumb above applies directly.

Most positions favour one of these clearly. A position that does not, where two plans both look reasonable, is usually an early one still waiting on the dice to decide for it.

Plain words for the table talk

Glossary

The words that come up mid-game, in one place, so nobody has to interrupt a match to ask what a phrase means.

Anchor: A point made by your back checkers inside the opponent's home board, keeping them safe until it is time to run or wait for a shot.
Backgammon (the win): Winning while the loser still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board. Worth triple the game's value, the biggest win there is.
Bar: The divider down the middle of the board. A hit checker sits here until it re-enters through the opponent's home board.
Bar Point: Your 7-point, the one right next to the bar. Usually the second point worth making, after the 5-point.
Bear Off: Removing a checker from the board once all fifteen are home, the last stage of a game.
Blot: A single checker alone on a point, exposed to being hit.
Checker: One of the fifteen pieces each side moves around the board.
Contact: Any chance one side's checkers can still hit the other side's, direct shots or built up over a few rolls. Once it is gone for good, the position has turned into a race.
Cube: The die marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 that raises what a game is worth. Whoever holds it can offer to double; the other side takes or passes.
Equity: A running estimate of what a position is worth, somewhere between a loss and a win, gammons and the cube included. What a "should I double" or "should I take" call is really weighing up.
Gammon: Winning before the loser has borne off a single checker. Worth double a plain win.
Golden Anchor: An anchor made on the opponent's 5-point specifically, the deepest and most valuable anchor there is.
Hit: Landing on a point held by a single opposing checker, sending it to the bar.
Home Board: The six points, numbered 1 through 6, where each side bears its checkers off. Each player counts these differently, from their own side of the board.
Match: A set of games played to an agreed target score, rather than a single game deciding everything.
Midpoint: Your 13-point, a key staging post for checkers early in a game.
Pip: One point of distance a checker needs to travel to get home. The unit a pip count is measured in.
Pip Count: The total pips needed to bring every one of your checkers home and off the board. The quickest way to judge who is ahead in a race.
Point: Two or more checkers stacked on the same spot, safe from being hit.
Prime: A run of six consecutive made points, forming a wall an opposing checker cannot cross.
Race: A position with no further contact likely, decided mostly by the pip count from here on.
Recube: Doubling the cube again after already taking it once, handing it back to the original owner at a higher value.
Run: Moving a back checker forward to get it out of the opponent's home board, rather than holding it back as an anchor.
Shot: A roll that lets the opponent hit one of your blots.
Slot: Placing a single checker on a point you want to make, before the second checker arrives to cover it. Gains a point faster than waiting, at the cost of a blot in the meantime.
Split: Moving the two back checkers off their starting point separately, rather than keeping them together.
Take / Pass: The decision when offered the cube. Take keeps the game going at the new value; pass concedes it at the value before the double.