Position 446

How should White play 42 here:

My favourite form of backgammon is Speed Gammon, and I really look forward to when there will be an 11 point Speed Gammon event at a tournament that I attend.

One of the nice things about Speed Gammon, is that good players do not have the time to do match equity calculations and the time does not drag.

But one of the dangers of Speed Gammon is that it is too easy to make the move that looks right and not think about your move.

Consider 8/4* 6/4:

This is the sort of play that players make far too quickly when they play Speed Gammon or sometimes even normal backgammon.

Black will hit you from the bar with 65, 63, 62, 61, 54, 43, 42, 41, 55, 33, 22 or 11. That is 20 rolls or 56% of the time. Note that an entering 52 allows Black to enter and make their 11 point.

I have also learned that I do not like to give my opponent a good 6 from the bar.

Now consider the double hitting play of 6/2* 18/14*:

Now you will be hit with any 4, of which there are 11. You will also hit with 55 and 22. That is a total of 13 rolls which is 36% of the time. That is 7 rolls or 19% less of the time that you will be hit.

Sometimes, even when you play Speed Gammon, you have to count the actual number of hitting rolls.