The blot: one checker, and why it matters so muchBeginner
A blot is a point holding exactly one of your checkers. It is the single most important word in backgammon, because almost every decision in a game is really a question about how many blots you are willing to leave and where.
Why one checker is different from two
A point with two or more of your checkers is yours. Your opponent cannot land there at all, which means it blocks them and shelters you. A point with exactly one checker shelters nothing: an opponent who lands on it sends that checker back to the bar to start its journey again. The difference between one checker and two is the difference between an obstacle and a target.
Leaving a blot is usually a choice, not a mistake
New players try to avoid blots entirely and end up making terrible moves to do it: burying checkers deep in the home board, breaking useful points, refusing to advance. Strong players leave blots constantly. The question is never whether a blot is safe, it is whether what you gain is worth what you risk, and that is a calculation you can actually do.
The cost side of the calculation
Two things decide the cost: how likely the blot is to be hit, and how much being hit would cost you. The first is pure dice arithmetic and is shown below. The second is positional: a checker hit from your opponent's home board loses almost nothing, because it had barely started. A checker hit twenty pips into its journey loses all twenty and has to re-enter past whatever your opponent has built in the meantime.
The gain side
What you get for the risk is usually one of three things: a made point you want, a builder in range of a point you want next turn, or progress escaping a back checker. If a blot buys none of those, it is just a blot, and that is when avoiding it was right.
The numbers, computed
Every figure below is enumerated over all 36 ordered outcomes of two dice, not quoted from a table. Shot counts assume the intervening points are open.
| Situation | Rolls that work | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting a blot 6 pips away | 17 of 36 | 47.2% |
| Hitting a blot 8 pips away | 6 of 36 | 16.7% |
| Hitting a blot 11 pips away | 2 of 36 | 5.6% |
Hitting a blot 6 pips away: Indirect shot: it needs two dice combined.
Hitting a blot 8 pips away: Indirect shot: it needs two dice combined.
Hitting a blot 11 pips away: Indirect shot: it needs two dice combined.
What most players get wrong
Safe play is good play, so avoid leaving blots.
Backgammon punishes passivity harder than it punishes risk. A player who never leaves a blot never makes new points, never escapes back checkers and slowly gets primed in. The correct instinct is not 'is this safe' but 'what does this buy me, and how often does it cost me'. Sometimes the answer really is play safe, and the point is that you decided rather than flinched.
Play a rated game and every decision gets reviewed afterwards against the best move available. The dice are committed before you roll and checkable after, so the number you end up with is a measure of you, not of luck.
Play a rated game freeFrequently asked questions
What does blot mean in backgammon?
A blot is a point occupied by exactly one checker. It can be hit by an opposing checker landing on it, which sends it to the bar.
Is leaving a blot bad?
Not by itself. Strong players leave blots routinely when the position gained is worth the chance of being hit. What matters is the trade, not the blot.
How do I know if a blot is too risky?
Count the distance from the nearest enemy checkers and look up the shot count. Then ask what being hit would cost in pips and position. A blot six pips away from the back checkers is hit far more often than one eleven pips away.
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