Position 390

 How should White play 21 here:

You know that gaps are bad, so you make the obvious play of 6/4 5/4:

This is the move that I expect a lot of players would make over the board, without the quiz factor of this being presented as a problem. This is the move that could easily be made if you are playing speed Gammon or not thinking about how your next roll plays. On your next roll, every 6 except 66 will leave a shot. That is 10 rolls or 28% of the time.

You could just think of this as a bear in problem and consider whether your highest two points (in this case your 7 and 8 points) have an odd or even number of checkers on them. You want your two highest points to either have both an even number of checkers on them or both an odd number of checkers on them.

Consider the correct 8/7 8/6:

After this move, your two highest points both have an even number of checkers on them and no roll leaves a shot.

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Position 386

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