Safe Moves During Initial Backgammon Setup

At the start of a backgammon game there are several safe moves we can do. As we opt for these first moves we can also setup our early strategies as we aim to bring our checker pieces to our home board from the enemy board where they are initially placed. So, from initial backgammon setup these are our options:

First is to move a piece or two on an unoccupied point. If we play white pieces and opt for moving one piece from our 1-point (the triangle on the upper right-hand of the board), we're safe moving it on points 2, 3, 4, or 5. If we move it on 6-point the point is an enemy bulwark, having 5 pieces. We are not allowed to rest our piece on it.

Thus, initially, it is good to have dice rolls that place our checker piece on above said points, except on 6-point. But what do we do if the dice roll results to 3-3 or 4-2 which both has a total of 6? Our safe option here is to move 2 checker pieces. If we move one piece it would end up on 6-point which is the enemy bulwark. To avoid this we move 2 pieces and divide the dice rolls to each of them.

Thus, to have the initial backgammon setup to our favor, we move the 2 checkers from our 1-point and move them 3 pips (or points) each or 4 pips for the first piece and 2 pips for the other. The beautiful thing about a 3-3 dice roll during the first move is its anchor potential. An anchor is a point on the enemy home board where at least 2 of our checkers are on.

Once we have an anchor on enemy territory enemy checkers on their way to their home board can be stopped by either being blocked by our anchor or hit by a piece coming from our anchor. Thus, initially, this is a good strategy to have with our first moves.

If the dice roll is a 6-6 we cannot have any of our pieces from 1-point occupy 6-point because it is an enemy prime. A prime is a point with at least 2 allied pieces on it. So the alternative is to move a piece 12 points. In other cases, when both dice rolls will have our piece landing on an enemy prime or anchor, we lose that turn.

Take advantage of the initial backgammon setup. One way is to build anchors on enemy board.