Defending against a blitz
Michael J Zehr
> [I'm getting blitzed a lot, how should I defend against it?]
The single best defense against a blitz is an anchor, preferably an
advanced anchor. It's the single best defense against virtually any
kind of game (well, okay, several 66's are the best defense against a
racing game *grin*), but is especially important if one's opponent is
trying to blitz.
Several other key items:
You will almost never want to break an anchor to split your back
checkers. For this reason, it's sometimes a benefit to have three
checkers back, because you'll often have more ways of making an advanced
anchor. But you usually don't want 4 checkers back, so you want to be
careful about playing loose around the rest of your board.
Making a second point in your board helps your position a lot because if
you're hit loose and hit back, there are 20 rolls in which your opponent
doesn't have a choice of which number to play on the blitzing side.
Your general game plan is probably to anchor up, survive the blitz, and
hope your opponent has divided their forces to the point that it will be
difficult for their back checkers to move home.
Making outfield points can be very helpful for when your opponent tries
to bring the back checkers around. If you can force your opponent to
crash through a bad double, then you can pop your anchored checkers out
and play a containing game.
But again, MAKE and KEEP an anchor.
-michael j zehr