Vic Morawski: Hi, I am Vic and today we are introducing you to the game of Backgammon. We would like to look next at some of the reasons why most experts agree that back games are more of a fall back game plan than a game plan that you aim for from roll one. Even for an expert, there are things that are totally beyond your control that can make even the most well-executed back game into a disaster, that can turn it into a disaster.

Suppose in a position like this and here blue is on his or her way, to a decently timed back game. Blue is building up that inner board, but note one of things that blue needs to do here is to roll a six and get a checker out to preserve the timings. Look what happens if you role something like double threes in a position like this. First of all, one thing you would rather not do in back game is make your one point and the reason is you would like to be able to have your opponent, if you hit them coming on the one and then expose another blot like in the opening position. It was possible that, even a second blot would be exposed and hit. Now if you roll something like double threes, you have got to partially destroy your board, something like that. So even if your opponent is a favorite to open a shot up in the bear off and you are favorite to hit it, you may not have a good situation on the other side of the board in which to stop your opponent and note okay, double threes would do that, double fours would force you also to destroy a lot of your board. So you can have a disaster roll like that, but note to have blue's board destroyed here, blue doesn't even have to roll that single disaster roll of double threes or double fours. All that has to happen in a situation like this is that roll -- is that blue, is unfortunate enough not to roll a six right away and can't get out and even numbers that force you to play down, remember, you must roll, you cannot pass on your turn, blue would rather pass here and preserve his or her board, but if you cannot get out here, even rolls like four-two are going to force you to start destroying your board and so, you don't have to roll that one disaster roll of double threes to double fours to have your board collapse on you.

So it's very easy in a back game to not be timed appropriately enough so that your board might look something like that by the time you get your shot. Next, we will illustrate why you should not try to hit too early in a back game. To watch the other segments in this video series or for How to videos on almost any other topic, visit monkeysee.

com.