Strategy › The back game
The back game
When a game has gone badly wrong, the back game is the deepest way to fight back: hold two anchors in your opponent's home board, wait for a late shot, and try to contain the checker you hit. It is risky, demanding, and — played well — surprisingly dangerous.
A back game is what a holding game becomes when you are not just behind but well behind. Instead of one anchor and a hope, you commit to two anchors deep in the opponent's home board and play for a single decisive moment: a hit, late in the game, that you can convert because your home board is ready to trap the checker you send back.
Which anchors
The two points you hold define the back game, and not all pairs are equal. The strongest are:
- 1-and-3 — broad shot coverage and a good chance to make a containing board.
- 2-and-4 — slightly less deep, with good timing and strong hitting numbers.
Pairs like 1-and-2 are weak: the points are too deep and too close together, the shots are poor, and the home board you can build behind a hit is feeble. If you are going to commit to a back game, commit to a good one.
Timing is everything
The whole strategy rests on timing — the single most important and most misunderstood idea in the back game. You will hit one of the opponent's checkers eventually, because they have to pass your anchors to bear in. The question is whether, at that moment, you still have a home board strong enough to trap it.
The danger is that your other checkers — the ones not in the anchors — keep being forced forward roll after roll, so that by the time the hit arrives your home board has already collapsed into useless deep stacks. A well-timed back game keeps spare checkers back and busy for as long as possible, so the board is still intact when the shot comes. Too fast, and you hit into nothing; that is a "lost timing" back game, and it is a common way to lose.
How a back game wins
The winning sequence is: hold both anchors → let the opponent bear most of their checkers in → catch the blot they are eventually forced to leave → contain it behind a strong home board → and then, while it struggles to escape and re-circulate, bring your own back checkers round and win the race that has quietly reversed. When it works, it is one of the most satisfying turnarounds in the game.
Why it is a last resort
For all that, you should rarely choose a back game on purpose. It wins a respectable share when you were already losing, which is exactly why it is worth knowing — but the odds still favour your opponent, and a back game that fails often fails badly, losing a gammon because so many of your checkers are stuck back while the opponent bears off cleanly. Treat the back game as the tool you reach for when better plans have already gone, not as a strategy to aim at from the start. And once you are committed, the cube decisions change too — a back game has high gammon risk, which matters when deciding whether to take a double.
Common questions
What is a back game?
A back game is a strategy for when you are well behind: you hold two anchors deep in your opponent's home board and aim to hit one of their checkers late, as they bear in, then contain it and turn the game around. It is the most extreme form of holding game.
Which anchors are best for a back game?
The strongest pairs are the 1-and-3 and the 2-and-4 back games, because they give good hitting coverage and a home board that can contain a checker once you hit. Holding the 1-and-2 points together is weak — the shots are poor and the board is hard to make.
Why is timing so important in a back game?
A back game only wins if, when you finally hit, you still have a strong home board to trap the checker. If your other checkers are forced too far forward first, you hit but cannot contain — so you need your position to 'wait' at the right pace, which is what players mean by timing.
Is a back game a good strategy?
It is a last resort, not a plan. Back games win a fair share when you are already losing badly, so they are worth knowing, but you should rarely steer into one on purpose — the odds are against you and a failed back game often loses a gammon.