Holding Games & Back Games

Hello dear reader! This is Marc Olsen from Backgammon Galaxy. In today’s blog post, you will learn about the difference between a holding game and a back game.

Holding Games

Firstly, let’s have a look at the opening position:

What happens in every single backgammon game is that at some point, one of the players successfully escapes his or her back checkers before the other player does. For instance, if we assume that Black is in a position like this:

Black, upon successfully escaping his back checkers

As you can see, Black has no back checkers. This means Black has no checkers in White's home board and has achieved full freedom. Conversely, White still has back checkers. In every backgammon game, one player will gain full freedom before the other.

For instance, imagine Black has espaced his anchor from the 24-point and has also built a partial prime. This scenario would typically lead to a holding game position, as illustrated below:

This is called a holding game because White is maintaining their anchor, effectively holding Black back and aiming to create an opportunity to hit a crucial shot and reverse the game's momentum. We can observe that:

• White has no prime value because there are no back checkers to be primed.

• White has no blitz value because there are no back checkers to be blitzed.

• White's remaining path to victory lies in contact.

Therefore, White can still win the game, making it a take if Black offers a double. Even without the potential for priming, blitzing, or racing, White can still win by achieving contact, hitting a shot, and turning the tide. As long as a single point of contact remains, a chance for a comeback exists in backgammon – this is the essence of a holding game.

Different Variations of Holding Games

Holding games can manifest in various forms. The position below illustrates the 22-point holding game (as shown in the previous example and presented again here):

22-point holding game

It can also be basically named the holding game according to what point you have. The position below would be the 20-point holding game or as some call it, the five-point holding game:

And below, you see an example of the bar point holding game:

Different Categories of Holding Games

1- Shallow Holding Games: This type of holding game occurs when you've managed to make an advanced anchor with your back checker. That would be on the 21 point, on the 20 point (which we call the golden point), or the 18 point (the powerpoint).

They're typically the stronger ones because they would still give you an opportunity to race as well. If you get lucky and roll a double five, you might catch up in the race.

So, in shallow holding games, you're not getting primed; therefore, you still have some racing chance.

2- Deep Holding Games: You’ll have a deep holding game when you have an anchor on the ace point or the deuce point, respectively:

They're usually not as strong as the shallow holding games because it's very difficult to catch up in the race in deep holding games. That is because you usually get the shots later on in the game.

For instance, let's imagine that Black had most of his checkers moved into his home board:

In this case, you would prefer to have a deep holding game rather than a shallow one because you are late in the game, late in the bear-off phase. So here, it would better to have a deep holding game because you still have a chance to hit.

If you have a shallow anchor in a position like the one below, you don't have much contact value:

It's rather easy for Black to just clear the last points here in front of the anchor.

3- Hybrid Holding Game: This type of holding game is sort of between a deep and a shallow holding game. The 22-point holding game is a great example for this type. It's neither deep nor shallow; it's something in between. We can say that it has a little bit of both worlds. You can still get lucky and catch up in the race from the 22 point, but you're also kind of getting primed because it's a little bit deep:

Back Games

A back game is essentially the same type of position as a holding game. It's also a contact position, but the difference is that you have two anchors made in a back game. So, a back game is actually a holding game with two anchors.

Different Categories of Back Games

1- Shallow Back Games: These are the back games where you have the five-point as one of the two anchors. For instance: the 5-4 back game, the 5-3, the 5-2, or the 5-1.

5-4 backgame

5-3 back game

5-2 backgame

5-1 back game

The shallow back games often play out as a holding game because even though you have a back game for the time being, later on you might just run with one of your checkers, and you still have a holding game with some extra contact. Or, you might run with both checkers, and then you would again have a holding game.

This means that in a shallow back game, you don't crunch as often, so it's more robust in terms of timing, but it's not quite as strong in terms of generating shots.

2- Mid-Range Back Games: Those games are the ones where you have the four points included, which would be the 1-4, the 2-4, or the 3-4.

4-1 backgame

2-4 back game

4-3 backgame

This type of back games generates a little bit more shots than the shallow one, but it's a little bit more risky because you're getting primed. So, you might end up crunching your front position, which is the worst thing that can happen.

3- Deep Back Games: Those are the back games where you essentially have the 1-3, the 2-3, or the 1-2 back game.

1-3 backgame

2-3 back game

If you have good timing, deep back games can actually be considered as the strongest type of back game.

Deep back games generate the shots quite late, so you should time your front position well, have a nice prime, and then when you get a shot (usually a double shot), then you can hit your opponent with the turnaround shot. Hopefully, if you manage to have a six prime by then, you can win the game that way.

On the other hand, the deep back games are also risky because, as you can see in the 1-2 back game position, you're really getting primed with the four checkers deep.

Again, the timing is a crucial variable in that case. If you don't have proper timing, you're going to crunch your front position, and collapse, and then basically, you will lose a gammon or even a backgammon.

You can see the full video here!