Position 417

 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 first alternative you are on the bar, but here you will not be.

Let’s look at the variation where you already have 8 checkers in the zone:

Now that you have enough building material, the simple hitting play of 24/16* becomes the correct move.

Note that we have not even put the extra checker on our 10 or 9 point but put it on our 8 point, so we have not diversified our numbers, it is just having that extra checker in the zone that makes the difference.