Position 337

 How should White play 11 here?

I have lost count of the number of times that I have been told “the 5 point is the 5 point”. Kit Woolsey said this to emphasise the fact, that if you have the choice, you could never go far wrong by making your 5 point. There is a lot of truth in the saying but there are times when it is wrong to make your 5 point.

Consider 8/7(2) 6/5(2):

Not only does this make your 5 point, but it also makes your 7 point and gives you a 4 prime. This is great, but Black has checkers on 4 different points that can be used to attack your blot on your 22 point while making their 3 point.

You need to grab an anchor here, rather than trusting in the mercy of Black.

Consider 24/22 6/5(2):

This gives you the 22 point anchor and also make sure 5 point. That is the good news, but the bad news is Black could make their 9 point, which would block any of your escaping 6’s. Black could also make their 4 point, or even the 7 point.

The other issue with this play is that your 8 point is stacked while both of your 6 and 5 points are stripped.

Consider 24/21 22/21:

The 21 point is miles/kilometres better than the 22 point anchor. Now you have escaping 6’s and your opponent cannot bring a builder down to their 10 point without being in danger.

When you have your 21 point, it is much harder for your opponent to prime you, and if they do it will be an outside prime. An outside prime is one where more points of the prime are outside your opponent’s board rather than inside it.

The fact that your opponent has checkers on 4 different points, means you really need an advanced anchor.

Usually if you make a mistake by making your 5 point, it will not be a big mistake but here it is, with any alternative other than the correct move being a blunder.

If we move a Black checker 6/5:

Then your opponent only has checkers with which to attack on 3 different points, so you will need to grab an advanced anchor is far less. This turns the correct move into 8/7(2) 6/5(2).