To play backgammon competitively, any player needs to master more than one strategy.  It’s fine to have a main strategy that you try to shape the game around, but it won’t always happen and you’ll need to match different opponents on their own turf.  That’s why I play backgammon online, because it offers the perfect testing grounds for practicing and testing different strategies.

I’m an absolute running game player.  I want to move fast and keep the game from slowing down.  Of course, I’ve learned the hard way that a simple hit checker or lack of luck with the dice can derail anybody’s running game.  And if you aren’t moving fast, then you better know how to play slow.  After taking a few beatings learning this, I started playing backgammon online to test out a priming game.  Before I got online to play backgammon, I couldn’t anchor a point effectively for the life of me.  But thanks to testing some tips with real online play and even getting some advice from other online backgammon players, I now have a very effective priming game.  It makes all the difference in the world too.

Now if my running game gets side tracked I can competently slow things down and work to pick off my opponents checkers and block his routes.  Then, after I’ve changed the game a bit, I usually can turn back into my running game to finish the deal.  Being change up like this is critical in backgammon and if you haven’t mastered it, you really should practice up with some backgammon online.