In very simple terms, there are three general plans used. You must be agile enough to hop between techniques quickly as the course of the game unfolds.

The Blockade

This is composed of assembling a 6-deep wall of pieces, or at least as deep as you can manage, to barricade in the competitor’s pieces that are on your 1-point. This is considered to be the most suitable course of action at the start of the game. You can build the wall anyplace within your eleven-point and your two-point and then shift it into your home board as the game advances.

The Blitz

This is composed of closing your home board as fast as as you can while keeping your competitor on the bar. e.g., if your challenger rolls an early 2 and shifts one piece from your one-point to your three-point and you then roll a 5-5, you are able to play six/one 6/1 eight/three 8/3. Your competitor is then in big-time trouble seeing that they have two pieces on the bar and you have locked half your inner board!

The Backgame

This course of action is where you have 2 or more pieces in your opponent’s inner board. (An anchor is a point occupied by at least two of your checkers.) It should be employed when you are significantly behind as this plan greatly improves your opportunities. The strongest areas for anchors are towards your opponent’s smaller points and either on adjacent points or with one point separating them. Timing is integral for a competent backgame: at the end of the day, there is no point having two nice anchor spots and a complete wall in your own inner board if you are then forced to break apart this right away, while your opposer is moving their pieces home, considering that you do not have any other extra pieces to shift! In this situation, it’s more tolerable to have checkers on the bar so that you can preserve your position up until your challenger provides you an opportunity to hit, so it may be a wonderful idea to try and get your competitor to get them in this case!