Backgammon Flexibility

Hello everybody! This is Marc Olsen, and I'm excited to share some valuable insights into the world of backgammon strategy. In this post, I will talk about flexibility. Whether you're a seasoned backgammon player or just starting your journey, understanding the role of flexibility in your game can make a significant difference.

Firstly, I want to show you my board, which was the prize for my triumph in the Nordic Open (2014), one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. If you are interested, you can watch the full video of the tournament here.

Now, let’s start with today’s topic. When you have flexibility in backgammon, it means that the position is likely to improve. On the other hand, an inflexible position is safe in the short term but not really likely to improve. 

Example Positions for Flexibility

Let’s imagine that I won the opening roll. I play a four and a three, and I make this move, stacking up the six point.

Inflexible position

This move is pretty safe, but inflexible. This position in the six point is what I call a “super stack”, and stacks are not desirable in the game, because they are inflexible. Moves like these are safe in the short term, but more risky in the long term. In such positions, you don’t have the flexibility of moving your checkers to develop. 

A flexible move in that case would be:

Flexible position

This position poses a short term risk for your game, because there are a lot of hits. For example, you can get hit by a six two, six three, four five, double three, and a double four. When you calculate the possibility of award and risk, the flexible move here offers you more award than risk, because the chances of you getting hit will not be through a direct shot. In other words, the opponent will have to combine two dice in order to be able to hit you in that position, which is not that easy.

In the position above, your checkers are well-distributed and almost all your numbers are point-making numbers. For instance, if I roll a three two, I get a great chance to make a priming point:

Or, if I roll a five two, I can make a very strong four point:

So, you need to trade off between long-term and short-term safety during the game. Notice that backgammon itself is about making strategical risk-reward calculations all the time.

For flexible backgammon, keep these in mind:

• We don’t like stacks.

• We like a good distribution of spare checkers.

• We like to make structure (e.g. a prime). 

Click here to watch the full video!