It's Time to Break the Anchor

An anchor on the opponent's home board is an important defensive point in backgammon. It assures an open point of re-entry from the bar and it obstructs your opponent's safe bear-in effort. Breaking the anchor is necessary to win in backgammon since all 15 of a player's checkers should be in the home board for the bear-off to start. So the important question here is, "When is the best time to break the anchor?"

While we already have an anchor on the opponent's ace-point from starting positions, this is not the best point to own. It's for the obvious reason that if your opponent builds a prime on that area, you'll be immobile until your opponent breaks that prime. So it's recommended to split your runners to make an anchor on your opponent's four-point or five-point (also called advanced anchors) in stead.

In the starting phase, there's less worry about being attacked when you split your runners. Besides, your opponent has yet to make a strong home board in order to box you in to realize the full benefit of sending you to the bar.

Towards the end game, if you've been able to maintain an advanced anchor, breaking it gets trickier. More conditions should be taken into account when making that important decision of when to bring your runners home.

Know that the stronger your enemy's home board is, the more likely you will be hit. In this case, it's important to wait before you break the anchor until an attack is less probable.

But if it's later on in the game and your opponent is yet to develop their home board or is sent to the bar, it's pretty safe to break the anchor at this point. While your opponent may be tempted to hit when given a shot, the distractions turns your opponent's away from the break.

Early on in the game is the best time to break the anchor on the ace-point to build an advanced anchor in stead. But later on in the game, deciding the best time to break the advanced anchor gets trickier. You should break the anchor when your opponent is still setting up for an attack in the process of developing their home board. But when your opponent is still scrambling to bear-in or to re-enter a barred checker, the distraction permits you to safely break the anchor and run home so you can commence your bear-off in backgammon.

, posted by

|