Backgammon Priming Game Part 3 - Middle Strategy

Vic Morawski: Hi, I am Vic and today we are introducing you to the game of Backgammon. What we would like to look at next are some of things you should keep in mind during the middle game when you are conducting a priming game. One of the best ways to build your prime is from the back. We talked in earlier videos about the value of leaving indirect shots because they are not as easy to be hit because of their value as builders and one of the best ways of building a prime is not from the front, but from the back.

Suppose, blue in the situation you see set up here rolled a 5-4. Now here with the 5-4 blue could try to run, but note this checker would have the chance of being hit by ones and the chance of being hit by threes, white would have what is called the double shot. A very good chance of sending it back to the beginning and besides we have got a good prime going over here. Now with the 5-4, it would be possible to build the two point. Now is that good play? Well probably not, and the reason is that the two points are a little disconnected, it's not really what you want to be doing. You don't want to be that far ahead now, plus notice, if I use those checkers to make the two points, now our six allows my opponents to run out. A better strategy would be to try to build my prime from the back by taking the five there and here I can even help myself more by bringing the four down and whether I did that or split the four, what I am trying to do on my next roll is should I roll a five -- if I am not hit by my opponent, I can get five points in a row in front of my opponent. So remember in the mid game try to build your prime from the back.

So remember that it is relatively safe to build your prime from the back. Now what hits this checker? Well a 1-6 , a 2-5. Only four chances of getting hit here and so that's a good mid game strategy. Okay, now we talked about trying to build your prime from the back, but now in this situation your opponent white has split to the point in front of the prime. Your opponent could make a great game by making that point on the next turn. You would like to prevent that. Suppose in this situation, you roll a 3-2. Well you cannot make a point on top of your opponent, but in a situation like this where your opponent does not have a much of a home board, it would be very good to use the three to hit at the base of the prime that is the point right in front of the prime.

You want to build from the back, but if you opponent splits to the front you want to attack in the front of the prime, because what you are hoping is that your opponent either does not come in when hit by that three or if your opponent comes in, he is forced to come in on the one or the two points and does not hits you back and then you can make that point on the next turn. So you can advance your prime forward and it might even be possible that you can advance your prime enough by this method of hitting at the base of it that you close your opponent out.

So that's one of the important things to think about. So in a prime, in the mid game you want to try to build from the back because it's safer and attack at the front because you need to do that to keep your opponent from getting in front of the prime because if you are able to do that, it is very significant that your opponent has sixes blocked because what gets white out from here? A specific one plus a specific six and so you want to put your opponent in the situation where it's very hard for them to extricate their back checkers from behind, even a partial prime like this, five point prime that you see here. Next we will look at the back game.