Making the Bar Point | Position Analysis by Phil Simborg

There are three reasonable plays:

Make your 2 point;
Make your opponent’s bar point;
Hit your opponent on your 14 point.

When I looked at this position, I immediately ruled out making my 2 point as too passive, and I didn’t want to make such a low point early in the game. So I debated between the other two, and I made the wrong play. It was not until I put it into Snowie and studied it carefully that I realized what the best play is and why.

Best Possible Play

The best play is to make your opponent’s bar point. And the way to come to that conclusion is to try to project what is likely to happen on the next couple of rolls after hitting, and then do the same after making the bar point.

I will not go through all those possibilities with you, as it would take many pages to go through all the possible rolls and combinations of rolls, but we are saved from that effort by using computer programs like Snowie and GNUBG. Those programs look 3 rolls ahead by both parties and even take the position to the end of the game if you run the program as a rollout.

Advanced Anchor

In short, if you hit, you can easily get hit back or your opponent can easily make an advanced anchor in your inner board. If you make your opponent’s bar point, you guarantee that you have an advanced anchor on your opponent’s side of the board, and that means you are not likely to ever get primed out or gammoned so long as you hold that position. With an advanced anchor, you can take greater chances on the other side of the board to advance your position—you can hit loose or leave blots in the hope of making more points, and if you get hit back, you will have some security and a position that will stop your opponent from bringing his checkers into his home board easily.

Hitting is often the right play early in the backgammon game, but when you can make a really good point on either side of the board, that should be a strong consideration.