Grant's Puzzles - Backgammon Position of the Week

  How should White play 41 here: Stick Rice always advises his students to work out what the DMP play is, then to factor in the Gammons won and Gammons lost to determine if another play is better. Here the obvious play, and the DMP play is to play 4/off 4/3: The XG rollout says that this move will win 100% of the time. There is no roll that will leave a shot this roll. But this move is wrong. Because you have 7 checkers left, the fewest rolls that you can have all your checkers off is 4 rolls. Consider the correct play of 4/off 1/off: This roll is correct because of several factors. Firstly, you leave only 6 checkers remaining, meaning that you can have all your checkers off in 3 rolls. That means you will win 11% more Gammons, and that is significant. Secondly, you will win a high number of games by making the more aggressive play. Usually when a player has 7 or more checkers all off, their opponent must hit a second checker to win. Because you now have 9 checkers off, you...

  How should White play 51 here: After you enter bar/24, you have two choices for how to play the 5. The first choice is 23/18: It is easy to understand why you would want to make this move. If you stay on your 23 point, and Black makes that point then they will have a 5 point board, whereas if Black makes their 7 point it will be easier for you to enter. The problem with that logic is you are in a bad way after either of those scenarios. You must look at what happens when Black does not point on you but merely hits loose. If Black hits you loose on Black’s 7 point, the only return shots from the bar that you will have will be indirect. That alone should tell you that you will have fewer return shots from the bar if you are on Black’s 7 point. If Black hits you on their 7 point you will hit them back with 61, 52 and 51 – 6 rolls or 17% of the time. Consider bar/24 13/8: Now if Black hits you loose on their 2 point, you will hit back with any 2 as well as 11. That’s 12 rolls or ...

How should White play 42 here: You would rather not leave a shot, so you consider 5/1 5/3: Although this does not leave a shot, it damages your board creating a spare on your 2 point that can never be used to make another point. You would rather keep your high points in your board, so that when you hit, Black will have to enter on low points and then must jump over your partial prime. Moving off your 5 point makes no sense here. If Black had a stripped position and a lack of timing, then this move might make sense, but here Black can keep their anchor on their 18 point for many rolls. Walter Trice once said, “if you are unsure what to do, then simply pick up your rear most checker and move it forward”. Because of this you consider 16/10: It is amazing how often Walter Trice’s statement is correct, but this is not one of those times. Even if Black misses you on the first roll, you are likely able to tidy up both blots this roll, so Black will probably have additional shots on at...

 How should White play 54 here: It is always disappointing to miss when you have a double shot at a blot. But there is nothing you can do about that; you missed so you need to focus on finding the best play. The safe play is 6/1 6/2: But this is just too safe. You need to hit a blot as you are so far behind in the race, and when you hit that blot you need a board that has no blots in it. This move changes your board from a 4 point board to a 3 point board with a blot. You could minimise the chances that your opponent will hit you by playing 18/13 18/14: But to win, you need to hit and to hit you really want to maximise contact. This move does the opposite and minimises contact. You need to be aware that Black’s board has 2 open points. That means if you are hit, with one checker you will enter on 20 numbers or 56% of the time. Consider 13/8 13/9: This move retains your 18 point, which is back far enough that it will take many rolls for Black to get their 2 checkers on their...

 How should White play 62 here:  You have the stronger board, so you consider the boldest play of 13/7 6/2*: Black will hit you from the bar with 44, 22, 64, 63, 54, 52, 43, 42, 41 and 31 – 18 rolls or 50% of the time. You will also be leaving 4 blots around the board. This move is just too big. You consider the completely safe play of 13/7 9/7: The issue with this play is that Black has complete freedom to do whatever they want to do. They can make inner board points, which they should easily be able to do as they have spare builders on their 6, 7 and 8 points. They can escape their back checker with any 6 or 5. Note how well diversified their rolls are. All this move does is gives Black the initiative. You will be ahead in the race by 15 pips after the roll, so you consider 23/21 9/3: This move does safety the blot on your 9 point, but now you have a blot on Blacks 4 point, which they would very much like to make. They have spares on their 8, 7 and 6 points, so they can ...

How should White play 43 here: You consider the hitting play of 13/ 8/5*: “If in doubt, hit” is a good saying, but here you should have doubt. Black has the stronger board with 2 more inner board points then you. Black will hit you with any 5, as well as 41, 32 and 42. That is 17 rolls or 47% of the time. That is just too many hits. You would really like to make your 21 point anchor, so you consider the splitting play of 24/21 13/9: This move does duplicate Black’s 4s, but you have moved your back checker to a point that Black would like to make and created another blot on your 9 point. You now have 3 blots around the board and a weaker board than black. Next you consider the completely safe play of 13/6: This is completely safe, and leaves no blots for Black to hit, but it also does nothing to improve your position. You are prepared to take a moderate risk to improve your position. Consider 8/4 7/4: This move improves your board and starts to make it harder for Black to escape. ...

 How should White play 53 here: You are very relieved to have hit Black’s checker on their 9 point. But you need to slow down and make sure you make the best play. The obvious play here is 24/16*: This leaves your back checkers connected, so that if Black hits the blot on their 9 point, you will have return 5s and 6s to hit from the bar. While this is good, in order to win this game, you are going to need to build a strong board, and at the moment you only have 7 checkers in the zone. Your priority after hitting is to improve your board. You cannot directly improve your board this roll, but you need to bring another checker into the zone while Black is on the bar. Consider 21/16* 13/10: You will still have good 6s from the bar to hit back if you are hit on your 16 point, except if you roll 66. You have a much better chance of making your 7 or 5 points. This is actually the correct move. This move also has one minor advantage in that if Black rolls 22 from the bar, with the firs...

 How should White play 55 here: This was from a match between two very good players, where one of the players made the natural move of 18/3 7/2: This reduces your blot count to only one blot, and duplicates Black’s hitting and covering 2s. The problem with this play; is that even if Black misses you, it still will not be easy to get your remaining checkers to safety. Black’s inner board blot allows you to make a much bolder play, 18/8 13/8(2): This leaves 2 blots and allows Black to hit you with any 2 or any 3. But the big advantage is, it will be much easier to tidy up this position if you are hit. That advantage and the fact that Black has an inner board blot makes this the correct play. To show the importance of that inner board blot, let’s create a variant where blacks inner board blot is covered and now Black has a 4 point board: Now narrowly, the one blot variation is marginally better. However, this is so close that over the board I would still play 18/8 13/8(2), because...