Backgammon Strategies for Beginners: Top Concepts to Master
// opening moves · point building · positional play
You know the rules. Now what? Beginner backgammon strategy comes down to three things: making the right points, avoiding stupid blots, and playing the optimal opening. This guide walks through the most important early-game principles every new player should learn — backed by decades of computer analysis.
Why the Opening Moves Matter
Every backgammon game begins with one of 15 possible non-doubled rolls. Computer analysis over the last 30 years has effectively solved these openings — there's a single best play (or two near-equal plays) for each. Learning them gives you an enormous edge over opponents who improvise.
The 5-Point: Backgammon's Most Important Point
Your 5-point (sometimes called the "gold point") is the single most valuable position on the board. Making it early limits where the opponent can hit you and forms the foundation of most blocking strategies. Any opening that makes the 5-point — 3-1, 6-1, 4-2 — is considered excellent.
The Eight Best Opening Plays
- 3-1: Make the 5-point. Universally agreed best play. Almost never wrong.
- 6-1: Make the bar point (7-point). Excellent blocking position.
- 4-2: Make the 4-point. Strong inner board foundation.
- 5-3: Make the 3-point. Solid and safe.
- 6-5: Run a back checker to the 13-point ("lover's leap"). Stays safe.
- 6-4: Run 24/14 (escape the back checker). Modern preferred play.
- 5-4: 24/15 or 13/8 13/9 — both reasonable.
- 2-1: Split: 24/23 13/11. The most contested opening — slot the 5-point.
Priming vs Racing
Two broad strategies emerge in every game: priming (build a wall of points to trap the opponent's back checkers) or racing (run your checkers home as fast as possible). The board position pushes you toward one or the other. Beginners often try to race when priming would win, or vice versa — learning to read the position is the next critical step. Read our running game vs holding game guide for the full breakdown.
Avoiding Bad Blots
A blot is a single checker on a point. Not all blots are equal:
- Safe blots: in your inner board on a low point, or easily covered next turn
- Dangerous blots: within direct shot range (1–6 pips) of opponent checkers
- Acceptable blots: when slotting a key point (like the 5-point) — the gain outweighs the risk
A common beginner mistake is leaving blots within range of multiple opposing checkers. Even one indirect shot (7–12 pips, combining both dice) is usually worth playing safe to avoid.
The Mental Game
Backgammon is a probability game. You'll lose games to bad rolls and win games on good ones — that's the nature of dice. The mark of a strong player is consistency: making the best play every turn and letting the dice average out over hundreds of games. Never play emotionally; tilt costs more games than bad strategy.
Next Steps
Once you've internalized opening theory and the 5-point principle, move to advanced positional play. Then learn the doubling cube to play real match games — it transforms backgammon into a multi-dimensional strategic puzzle.
Practice is essential. Play games on MrPegasus — the bot is a reasonable practice partner, and live games with friends teach you how skilled opponents think.