All good backgammon players have memorized the right play for all opening rolls. We all know that with a 3-1 you make the 5 point, 4-2 you make the 4 point, 6-1 you make the bar (7) point, and so on. But there are several rolls which can be played many different ways, and 4-3 is one of them.
How to Play 4-3
Basically, there are FOUR different ways to play a 4-3 opening roll, and they are all pretty close and pretty good. You can play 24/20 24/21, 24/20 13/10, 24/21 13/9, or 13/10 13/9. Any other play, including leaving a direct shot by slotting a point in your inner board, or simply moving one checker from the 13 to your 6 point, are very poor plays in comparison.
So if there are four good plays, which one should you choose? The answer depends on the score of the match. In the
backgammon position exemplified above, you are leading and you only need one point to win the match. Your goal is to win a point. You don’t care about winning gammons or backgammons, but on the other hand, if you happen to lose, you would rather lose one point instead of two. So you have a goal that affects your thinking and your checker play FROM THE OPENING ROLL.
How to Prevent Gammons
The best way to prevent gammons is to make an advanced anchor in your opponent’s inner board. You’d love to own your opponent’s 5 or 4 point, or possibly his bar point or 3 point, and hold that until you really have an offensive advantage. It is very difficult to get gammoned when you are holding one of those points (unless your opponent can hit a lot more checkers, which is unlikely if you play properly).
So at this score, the best play is to move both checkers off of your 24 point. If you don’t get hit, all you need to do is roll a 1 and you make your opponent’s 5 point, or a 3-2 and you make his bar point. Making either point not only helps prevent gammons, it makes it very difficult for your opponent to make a prime and bring his checkers home without leaving you shots. If you get hit, whether it’s the checker on the 5 or 4 point, you still have the other one remaining to make that point from the bar.
And the Backgammon Lesson is
I think the most important lesson here is to know that the score truly affects your checker play. If you were losing the match and gammons are important, the best play with 4-3 is to bring two checkers down from your 13 point. That is the most offensive play and gives you the best chance to make points on your own side of the board (offense) instead of your opponent’s side of the board (defense). If things go wrong and you get hit, at least you are not worried about getting gammoned so getting hit is not as hurtful as it would be at other scores.
BEFORE every game starts, I look at the score, think about what my overall
backgammon strategy should be, and I apply that strategy to BOTH my cube and my checker decisions beginning with the opening roll.
