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Backgammon
- Try to keep at least two stones on a point at all times. If there's one unprotected, it's called a blot, and it's prime attack fodder for your opponent.
- When you roll doubles, you can use each die twice. (For example, two sixes means you can move a total of 24 slots!)
- A shutout occurs when one of your stones is on the bar and you want to move it down onto the board but your opponent has all six points occupied with two or more stones. You will have to wait until you can move onto a blot or a clear point.
- A "gammon" means you have moved all of your stones off before your opponent has even moved one off the board. You will get a double game score for a gammon!
- A "backgammon" means you've done a gammon, plus your opponent still has one stone stuck on the bar. You'll get a triple game score for a backgammon.
Checkers
- Look for opportunities to make a double jump. It not only captures two of your opponent's checkers but also moves you closer to the back of the board where you can be "kinged." Once a piece has been kinged, you can move it backwards as well as forward.
- Think about the defensive side of the game as well as the offensive. You can place checkers in such a pattern that your opponent can't take the jumps they want to.
- A locked-in checker is a sad checker indeed. You can place pieces so that your opponent can't move at all. Look for ways to lock your opponent to the edge.
- Your opponent wants a king as much as you do. See if you can leave your checkers on the back row alone for a while. With those spaces occupied, you keep your opponent from ever creating a king.
- In this version of Checkers, there are two options: "Checkers: Jumps forced" and "Checkers: Jumps not forced." These each take different strategies. If you force jumps, you may have to take a move you don't want to -- but so may your partner! Try both of them, and see which style you like better.
Chess
- As mentioned before, there are thousands and thousands of books about Chess strategies. The game is quick to learn, and takes lifetimes to master. If you want more information, we encourage you to go check out a book on Chess strategy.
- The best strategy hint that we can provide is to watch your opponent carefully. Did your opponent make the last move to block you? Was your opponent moving to set up another, more powerful move? Were they setting you up to move into a place where your piece would be captured? Always watch what your partner does before you move your pieces.
- Different pieces capture in different ways. Don't always look at the piece in front of you, or another piece may sneak all the way across the board to capture you!
- At all costs, protect the King. If it costs you a few pieces to get him to safety, it is worth it. The whole game ends when the King is in a place where he cannot make any legal moves.
Connect-4
- In this game of checkers mixed with tic-tac-toe, it's extremely important to keep your eyes on the entire board at once. Before you make your move, look to see if your opponent is about to get four in a row. The defensive strategy here is as important as the offensive strategy.
- Build up and high. Most partners look for vertical or horizontal scores, but they often forget the diagonal ones.
- Use your opponent's pieces to your advantage. Build on top of them, and if you can block them in the meantime, then you've done even better!
- There is no time limit on your move, so don't rush through. Remember, the game can go all the way to the top of the board. You don't need to make your score at the beginning. The first to get the four across, however, gets the win.
Dominoes
- Get rid of all of your high-point dominoes first. That way, if you don't win, you'll be giving fewer points to the winner. (In Dominoes, whoever uses all of their dominoes first gets a score by adding up all of the pips [dots] from their opponents' dominoes.)
- If you can't match the dots or the design, try to match the color. This version has three ways to help you make a match.
- Dominoes can face any direction, horizontally or vertically, as long as you make a match with one that is on the board.
- Dominoes can be rotated into the correct position by clicking the right mouse button.
- A Double Domino (for example, two fours, or two fives) can center on a single by that number. (For example: a double four can be centered up against a single four.)
Parcheesi
- For each five rolled or a sum that equals five (such as two and three), you can allow another pawn to come out of your home space.
- You can split your dice roll or take it all together. (For example, if you roll a five and a two, you can move one pawn five, and another two, or one pawn seven spaces.)
- The strategy is of course to move your pawns as quickly around the board as possible, to get them all into a home space, but you also need to capture your opponents' pawns and send them back home.
- You can also form a "blockade," which is two pawns of the same color. Nothing can move past a blockade, not even one of your own pawns. If you can, try to form a blockade in front of one of your opponents' home spaces, so that no more of their pawns can come out.
- Watch out for doubles! You can roll again with doubles, and use the second roll as easily as the first, but if you roll a third set of doubles, your head pawn has to go back home. The head pawn is the one that has made it farthest around the board.
Pente
- You've got a mental challenge ahead of you! All you need to do is get five of your pieces (or "winks") in a row. Sounds simple? Keep an eye out for your opponent's attempts to block you.
- At the same time, you should be watching for opportunities to remove your opponent from action, two winks at a time. If you get ten of your opponent's winks in your corner, you win!
- In all cases, the best thing to do is to look before you leap. The board is big, but the action happens all over it. It's similar to watching a three-ringed circus. Start protecting whenever your opponent gets three winks in a row.
- You can put winks down on the board anywhere that two black lines cross. You don't have to stay near your opponent's moves.
- Often, you can distract your opponent by starting to build your five winks in a row up in the middle of the board so your opponent can see you. All the while, you can be working on another five elsewhere.
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