| 101 94 |                         | White money game Blue |
Problem #4 Play Votes Score11/9, 3/2 3 1008/6, 3/2 3 903/1, 2/1 2 8011/8 1 709/7, 3/2 1 407/5, 3/2 1 40 4/3, 4/2 1 40
Steve Clark: 11/9, 3/2.
11-8 is too loose for me and there is no point in breaking a 6 pointprime in order to give our opponent a chance so I was looking at howugly 3-2, 11-9 is. The I notice 3-1, 2-1 and saw how much prettierthat is. It keeps better checker distribution and holds our prime.Unfortunately I don't think it is the right play. With a double gap wewill have a much more difficult time keeping our prime. Furthermore, weare likely tohave awkward plays in the near future. 3-2, 11-9 mightappear to be less flexible but I think that is a chimera. We we havefew bad rolls in the near future and a much better chance of rebuildingour prime. I will play that.
George Klitsas: 11/9, 3/2.
Blue must lift the blots (3/2). The danger of losing the prime vs prime battle is simply too great to risk the double slot. After 3/2 should Blue risk the indirect shot (the best move from this group is 8/6, giving White the joker 3-5 from the bar) in order to facilitate his future plays? A very interesting question. I think it's close anyway and I will go for the safe 11/9 3/2. Blue is a favorite to win the race even if he does not close out White's checker.
Rob Maier: 11/8.
I'm not gonna think about When I get hit, I don't get stuck that often, and sometimes I pick up checker 2, checker 3, etc.
Snowie: 3/1, 2/1.
We have this game won. Why take any unnecessary chances? We are going tohave to make the ace point eventually anyway. There should be littledifficulty bringing the position home safely. We might not be able toroll the prime forward, but we don't need to do that. Our position willbe flexible enough for safe play. If the gammon comes the gammon comes,but we don't have to go out of our way to get it.
Bob Stringer: 3/1, 2/1.
White has a strong board, and my position could crumbleif I'm hit, enter on White's ace point and then sitthere. Shifting checkers around is not good because itbreaks the prime. So the question comes down to makingthe 2 or the 1 point. I choose the latter, because inorder to keep my prime, I have to play 11/9 with the 2,which could make a 6 on my next roll rather awkward.
Casper Van Der Tak: 8/6, 3/2.
I do not want to get hit here and lose the priming battle. Hence 3/2. I like to make the 3 point next turn, so I like 8/6 which seems to give nice building potential at the cost of 2 hitting numbers. Hence 8/6 3/2.
Kit Woolsey: 8/6, 3/2.
Holding the prime isn't right. If White enters with a hit, White will havea good chance to win the priming battle. Blue needs to cover up in hisinner board. 8/6, 3/2 puts a valuable spare on the six point and givesBlue good diversification at the cost of a single 17 to 1 shot. Once Bluehas made his two point, losing the eight point is not so bad. The nine pointguards the three point, which is more important.
Chris Yep: 11/9, 3/2.
I like the simple 11/9 3/2. It keeps the 6-prime and leaves no shots (3/1 2/1 is also possible, but it leaves a big gap). Even though Blue has a 6-prime he still doesn't want to get hit (White has fairly reasonable chances of trapping him behind a prime) since he will then have less than 10 spare pips to play with on his side of the board before having to break his prime. So leaving direct shots looks wrong even when Blue can keep his 6-prime. What about leaving a few indirect shots in order to create another builder for the 3 point? The general rule is that Blue should not volunteer any shots unless there is a significant gain in flexibility and/or builders. That does not seem to be the case here, so I don't think that Blue should volunteer even 2 shot numbers. I believe it's correct to play completely safe.
Summary: A very tricky priming problem. The general concensus was tomake the two point and go from there. Things could get sticky whatever playis made.