Pip Count - Your Gauge in the Race

When you participate in backgammon tournaments on the Internet you won't have to bother with the notation and the pip count. You will have all that information on the screen when you play a match. Unfortunately, you don't have this convenience when you enter a live tournament offline. You will have to do the pip count yourself at times when you play a match. That way you can tell how far ahead you are or how much do need to catch up on.

For you to be able to make the right decisions about your next moves in the game, you should be able to tell your status in the game. Positional advantage isn't everything in backgammon. Players will require a knowledge of their standing in a game; thus the pip count becomes an important tool to figure this out.

The pip count is a decision making tool that players use in a game. Basically this a tally of how many points that all of your checkers have to run in order to get borne off. This coincides with the fundamental premise of the game, which is basically a race of checkers. Having fewer pips or points to run will mean finishing the race earlier than your opponent. Whether you are ahead or trailing as shown by the pip count will determine what type of strategy you will employ.

Doing a manual pip count is simple and will require very little amount of math. Just add up the total number of pips your checkers need to go in order to bear them off and you basically have done a pip count. After knowing the pip count, your next step is to make strategy decisions. If you are already 10% ahead in the count then this means you have a good lead and will likely win. However, if you are 10% behind, taking and shifting things the other way around, then it is time for some drastic maneuvers.

When you lead the count in a game you should play more conservatively and safely. You should never take risks like leaving blots. This also means you should never hit your opponent's blots unless you can either cover up the blot you made or move the same checker to a safe location.

If you're the one 10 percent behind in the pip count then you should consider some drastic moves in order to catch up to your opponent. Your objective is to hit and block your opponent. A tactic you can use is to make points on your opponent's home board. In order to do that you will deliberately let your blots get hit in order to cycle your checkers back and make blocking points. When an opportunity to hit comes along in backgammon, you should hit blots to make your opponent gain some points in the count. For these reasons, a pip count is a necessary tool in backgammon tournaments.