Position 340

 How should White play 11 here?

When you roll doubles, it is like having two rolls in a row. So, take your time and carefully consider all the options – there will be many.

Consider 24/22(2):

This is the defensive move, but you should always prefer offence of moves to defensive moves, unless you really need to play defensively.

This move makes it harder for Black to unstack the 3 spare checkers on their 6 point.

It also gives you more direct and indirect shots into Blacks outfield, making it harder for them to bring builders down off their 13 point.

Countering that is the fact that the 22 point anchor is not a very good anchor. And you have better offensive play is to make.

Consider 6/4(2):

This makes another inner board point and you have 3 builders aimed at your 7 point. If you make your 7 point then you will have a 5 prime.

The issue with this play is that any 6 apart from 66 and 61 give Black the chance to escape. 65 escapes completely, 62 escapes and hits 24/16*, while 63 and 64 escape to a single shot by you.

This means that you have to make your 7 point. There are two ways to do this, first consider 24/23 9/7 8/7:

This looks really good, as you will have indirect shots into the outfield, except that is the wrong priority. Black’s main goal here is to escape their back checker. If they cannot escape directly with 63 or 53, they will advance to their 22 or 21 point where they can see daylight i.e. be able to escape with a direct 6 or 5. You need to make it harder for them to advance to their 22 or 21 point by playing 9/7 8/7 6/5:

Now if they advance to your 4 or 3 point, you will have 4 builders aimed at that point.

This is the correct move.




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