The Backgammon Race

Backgammon is nothing more than a race to get all your pieces into your home board and then off before your opponent does so. Obviously much happens on the way but that still is the ultimate goal. In Online Backgammon a lot of people come unstuck when it comes to the backgammon race because they don't appreciate the situations in which to race. There are no hard and fast backgammon rules about this so probably best to use common sense.

Given this you can elect to follow a backgammon race strategy where all you do is try to get your pieces home as soon as possible without being hit, trapped or stuck along the way. The further you are in the count the more desirable this is because you just want to get out of there and start bearing off. Your opponent will probably try to counter though by playing a back-game which could hurt him when it comes to his backgammon race.

If it is a full-on race that you have to work out what the various pip counts are. For instance a piece on the bar is 25 pips away from bearing off. A roll of 6-6 is worth 24 pips. The pip count is how many pips a player is from victory. If that is about even it will come down to the dice.

The pip count gives you a good idea of who is ahead in the match and by what extent. Many online backgammon players ignore the pip count.