The Backgammon Anchor
Creating an anchor is an important game strategy that can help you gain an upper hand in a backgammon match. Besicly, an anchor is joining two or more checkers into a single point on your opponent's home board. The logic behind the creation of the anchor has three parts: You are more likely to block your opponent from reaching his position, you hold an excellent position for an attack and, finally, the opponent cannot hit you. Knowing where and how to create an anchor takes some practice but once this strategy is mastered, it can go a long way in helping you win your game of backgammon. Furthermore, if you are loosing the game, the only way to turn the tables migt be to use anchors.
The diference between a backgammon outfield point and an anchor point is that an outfield point is situated outside the home boards. Still, it is very important, since it can be used for creating a prime block against the opponent. A holding game is a game that has both players with outfield points and anchors on both halves. Players may not intentionally create a holding game and the game will only move forward when one of the players manages to throw a double.
What are the best moves to be made when you find yourself in a holding game??
Keeping the Anchors in place: As tempting as it may be to advance your checkers, including anchors, it may be better in the long run to keep the anchors where they are in order to be in a better position to hit your opponent later on in the game. This strategy depends on a number of other factors on the board.
Saving the Anchor Move for a Double Roll: If you want to advance your anchor, your best bet would be to wait until you roll a double on the dice and move them together. In this way, you are not leaving single checkers exposed to be hit by the opponent in the game.
Anchor versus Outfield Point: Sometimes one player is holding an anchor point on one side of the board while the other holding a similar outfield point on the other side, holding each other in this way. In this situation players will try to hit each other's anchor or outfield points to block one another on the bar. This situation is where pip counting helps: If the outfield point and anchor point are six (or less) pips apart, this is a better situation for the player who has more pips to complete the game. This increases the player's chance of hitting the opponent in the game.
Backgammon Hitting Factors