The art of playing backgammon is often in how fluid you decide to make your plans for playing from the very start of the game. Often if you have been playing an inexperienced player then they often start the game in a defensive pattern and may not even make the most of very good doubles. The attacking game in backgammon is often called a “blitz” because it places your opponent on the back foot and into an even more defensive position.
For example let us say that you throw 5-4,many novice players look to run with that from their opponents inner board but that is in fact a very weak move that doesn’t really build your position all that much. You have several key objectives in backgammon and the first one is to make it as hard as possible for your opponent to play an easy game.
In principle then this is a lot like poker because your moves in a poker game can often make life harder or easier for your opponent. In fact you need to ask this question as a poker player all the time because if you are making life easy for your opponent then their playing decisions become easier and your profit potential drops. But if their decisions by definition become easier then yours must get harder……it is the law of the jungle.
This principle applies perfectly to backgammon as well and before you make your move then you have to assess if your move makes life easier or harder for your opponent. If your move does nothing to make life harder for them then you may want to consider making another move.
