Grant's Puzzles - Backgammon Position of the Week

 How should White play 61 here? Do you hit or do you take another checker off? Consider 10/4 1/off: Many times, I’ve been told that you should taking more checkers off as you will win more games if you are hit. This is great advice and usually applies, but like all rules of thumb, it is good to understand the exceptions or when the rule does not apply. In order for your opponent to win, they would like to put both of your checkers on the bar. This means that if they roll a 41 here, they should hit 22/21* and then play 6/2 hoping to be hit and to pick up your checker on your 1 point. If they hit with any other roll, they should spread their checkers out so that you have to hit them as you are escaping from their board. What is interesting to note if your opponent played a 41 this way, they would win 43% of the time. If you play the correct 10/3*: Your opponent can never pick up a second checker after they hit your checker on our 3 point. Rules of thumb a great, but some positi

 How should White play 43 here? This is a position from the world champs where the score has been removed. I just want to remind readers that this is a money position as played in New Zealand i.e., without the Jacoby rule. If it helps, just think of this is the first game in a 25 point match. Gammons are active even without the cube being turned. It is always good to hit and go ahead in the race, unless you are in a priming situation. Consider 24/21* 7/3: You go from being behind in the race to being ahead in the race. Although you have kept your 4 prime, your opponent has a lot of double hits here from the bar. If you are hitting, is 7/3 the best move with the 4? You have duplicated your own 3’s to cover, make your 21 point anchor and play 21/18 escaping. If you are going to hit the better play is 24/21* 6/2: This move diversifies your future rolls giving you 5’s and 4’s to cover the blot on your 2 point and 6’s and 3’s to anchor or escape on your opponent’s side of the board.

How should White play 32 here? “ ‘I had the sucker! It was huge, and a real beaut. But just as I was about to haul it in, it wriggled off the hook. Bad luck, I guess…’ “Often it’s hard to tell the difference between a fishing enthusiast hail of the one that got away, and a backgammon players story about the incredible dice that cost and the big game that he should have one and in both genres, the bad luck often results from some forgotten (or unnoticed) technical error.” – Walter Trice “Backgammon Boot Camp” page 93. Sometimes you really are unlucky, but from my experience, far too many times I do not spend enough time thinking about the best way to bear in and bear off in the end game. In this position, all the alternatives that you will consider leave 13 shots so to come to the correct answer you must correctly weigh the competing factors. You consider putting your opponent on the bar against a 3 point board with 5/2 4/2: You note that your opponent will stay on the bar with 9 rolls,

 How should White play 33 here? You have just rolled a great number, and now you just need to play it well. Even if you cannot Pipcount, having 3 checkers back compared to your opponent having only 1 checker back, you must be behind in the race. If you are behind in the race, your main game plan should be priming. Therefore, when you are comparing the different alternatives, you should select the move that gives you the best priming game. You consider making the most number of points on your side of the board by playing 8/5 13/10 6/3(2): This is not a great priming structure as the 10 point and 3 point can never be part of the same continuous prime unless you find yourself playing with 16 checkers. You consider 8/5 13/10 24/21(2): Making an advanced anchor looks nice, but it is pursuing the wrong game plan. You really want to be creating the best priming game you can and making the 21 point is the wrong goal. Consider 8/5 24/21 6/3(2): Your 8 point and 3 point can be part of

 How should White play 66 here? As always when you roll doubles you will have many choices. When you consider any roll that hits loose on your 1 point, it must be better to simply make your 1 point with 13/1*(2): This gives you a 4 point board with one of your opponent’s checkers on the bar. If they do not enter, or enter but fail to anchor you should be able to continue attacking. The problem with this move is that if your opponent does roll a 4, then they will be in good shape and you will have lost control of the outfield and will be scrambling to put your game back together. The net result is that although it is great when your opponent doesn’t anchor, when they do you are in such a bad way that you have to discard this play. You would like to get the checker on your 22 point moving, so you consider 22/10 13/7(2): This aims a lot of firepower at your 4 point. This will be really good if your opponent does not roll a 6 or 51 and hit your checker on the 10 point. Your positio

 How should White play 63 here? I remember being told the saying “if in doubt, hit”. I think this is a good saying, and it is guided me to the correct move many times. Here you could hit 16/10 7/4*: This does remove the spare from your 7 point so that if you cover with a 3, you will be giving up your 7 point. If your opponent does hit you, and you fail to enter, your opponent will have a good 6 to hit your blot on your 10 point and small numbers to cover the blot on their 4 point. If you are going to hit, it would be good to keep your checkers further back in the outfield so they are safer if your opponent hits your blot on your 4 point. Then to hit a second checker they will only do that with an indirect shot, rather than a direct shot. Consider 13/4*: This move leaves 3 blots, which could easily be scooped up if your opponent hits the checker on your 4 point and you fail to hit back. If this happens you will lose a high number of Gammons because you could have 2 or 3 checkers o

 How should White play 51 here? You are really glad that you rolled on entering number, now all you have to do is play it correctly. Normally it is good to play aggressive backgammon, so you consider bar/20 3/2*: Breaking an inner board point to hit loose leaving 2 inner board blots is called the banana split play. I selected this position because years ago in the chouette, I talked my team into making the banana split play and it works spectacularly well. Our opponent redoubled us before rolling, stayed on the bar and then accepted our recube to 8. We then all won a gammon. There is a place for banana split plays, but this is not one of them. We will be hit with any 3, any 2 and 11 – that’s 21 rolls or 58% of the time. And even if our opponent misses, we are not guaranteed to cover both inner board blots. Here the Banana Split play is too dangerous. If you decide to keep your board, you could prepare to attack next time by playing bar/24 8/3: The problem with this move is th