sol8025m.htm | Gammonline - Backgammon Resources

Alan Alsop: 8/4, 6/1.
Timing is tight on both sides. If Blue runs from the back White will have no alternative but to hit. Blue has to keep Whites last man from escaping without helping his timing. Hitting would be to Whites advantage, Blue has to level this up by making White play from Blues 11 pt. Without breaking his prime Blue is left with little choice over his moves. Lets play the above and wait and see who breaks first.

Chuck Bower: 7/2*, 6/2.
White is poised to hit loose and/or point-on-head (PoH) if Blue tries to leave the anchor. I can't see the advantage of attempting this. Blue's prime is decent but not imposing, and I don't seeit as sufficient protection to risk an onslaught. Blue should get some chances to depart later.
8/4, 6/1 looks nearsighted. Giving up the 9-point while slottingthe 5-point could be right. Still I prefer the straighforwardPoH play, even though it does break the middle of the prime.White gets six return shots but Blue's checkers are reasonablyplaced for continuing the attack or rebuilding the prime. A slip or two by White could leave Blue in the driver's seat.

Nigel Buchan: 8/4, 6/1.
For me this was the most difficult problem. My first thought was to make the 2pt, unfortunately this weakens Blues only strength, which leaves 8/4, 6/1 to play, gulp! With the cube on Blues side he is just got to hang in there to the end.

Tom Cunningham: 8/4, 6/1.
My timing appears to be my best asset here, If I point onWhite with 7/2 6/2 he can respond nicely with 6/1 4/3 5/2 5/4 5/5 and 5/6. But if I play the safe 8/4 6/1 he can only escape 3/5 and 3/6 otherwise he has to move his last checker into the outfield. From there I have a chance for a fly shot or to break my nine point and either build or attack. 8/4 6/1 is my choice.

George Klitsas: 8/4, 6/1.
Moving from the 23 point looks to me like a blunder, since White will gleefully attack with 2's and 4's and other combinations. From the remaining candidates, 7/2* 6/2 looks weak, since it normally will not give White many chances to crack. Very interesting are the two remaining plays, 9/5 9/4 and 8/4 6/1. After both plays, White has some very bad rolls, like 66 and 61 and some awkward ones like 55, 44, 52 and 42. 9/5 9/4 is the play that could be labeled "direct road to victory" - White does not roll a three (or an ace to move to the edge of Blue's forming prime), Blue makes the prime and usually claims with the cube). But, if White rolls that three, he instantly becomes the favorite to win a gammon and this is a big downside for 9/5 9/4. Mainly for that reason, the quiet 8/4 6/1 (my final choice) looks slightly better, giving White lots of opportunities to crack, while avoiding losing too many gammons.

Laila Leonhardt: 7/2*, 6/2.
A prime can be very efficient. But it won't always keep the opponentcaptured. The biggest risk here is to abandon the security of the 23 point-Owning the cube you do want to stay in the game and try to avoid risking agammon. So definitely not the time to venture from that point-Also consider, that if you do hit another of White's checkers it would beeasy to get out and likely escape from your broken prime.Use the Doubling cube as a weapon- putting White on the bar there are manyinteresting scenarios where you will be able to cash in the game within thenext few rolls and if you should get hit, then gammons are not overwhelmingwhen owning the 2 point and there will still be winning chances in indirectshots or shots during the bear-off

Snowie: 8/4, 6/1.
It's not time to panic. My distribution is still decent, I maintain mybroken five-prime for another turn, and White has nothing to shoot at.I have to give full respect to White's five-point board. Maybe I'll rollsomething good next turn, or maybe White will be forced to crunch.If White is unable to advance his back checker, I'll be able to move fromthe nine point next turn in relative safety.

Bob Stringer: 7/2*, 6/2.
Whatever I do, I'm not going to break that anchor inside White's 5point board. Aside from not opening myself up to getting killed,the priority is to contain White's last back man if I can. Noteasy an easy thing to do with this roll. Slapping down a blot onthe 5 point works well if it works, but I don't see it working,and I'd *really* hate it if I got a high roll on my next turn.Hitting and making the 2 point leaves me open for a completedisaster if White rolls a seven, but that's only 6 rolls, and thegreat majority of White's remaining possible rolls are good forme. The ultra safe 8/4, 6/1 looks like the only alternative tomaking the 2 point, but since it leaves all of my outside pointsstripped, it doesn't look like it's going to lead anywhere.

Casper van der Tak: 8/4, 6/1.
White's board is too strong for Blue to do anything rash, like leaving hittable blots... Despite being ugly, 8/4 6/1 retains the prime and keeps White's last back checker contained. Dumping a checker on the ace is no fun, but if necessary, Blue can at a later stage cover the ace and go into blitzing mode.

Kit Woolsey: 7/2*, 6/2.
It is going to be too difficult to create a prime after this awkward roll.Slotting the five point is very risky, and even if I get away with it Iwill have a lot of work to do. The safe 8/4, 6/1 leaves me with no encore.Running a back checker is suicidal. I think the best approach is to gointo attack mode and make the two point. This leaves only six shot numbers,and my checkers will be well-distributed to make another inner board pointnext turn.

Chris Yep: 8/4, 6/1.
Blue has plenty of time to wait on his anchor. He has three spares to play with and can even break the 9 point if necessary. Meanwhile White has to move forward with his outfield spare. Blue can run later with 5s and 6s, so running now is not so urgent. When White has brought his outfield checker into his board, Blue can then consider whether to run. If Blue runs now, White will attack (with a much stronger board) and Blue will lose a lot of gammons. Instead I believe Blue should just sit patiently on his anchor and play 8/4 6/1. Note that there's another relatively "safe" move in 7/2* 6/2. It points on White's head and leaves only 6 shots. However there are several reasons why I don't like it: (1) the 6 shots are quite significant, (2) Blue wants White to move forward with big numbers, however 6-6, 4-4, and 6-4 now let White stay on the bar (instead of eating up most of his timing), while 5-5 allows White to play safely (instead of breaking his board), (3) Blue doesn't have good follow-up; 7/2* 6/2 breaks his prime; when White enters, Blue's board is too weak to hit loose, so most of the time White just gets away.

Summary: Thematically it is usually correct to attack a lone backchecker rather than try to prime it, but the panel felt that this is anexception due to White's strong board and the danger of leaving evenindirect shots. They may well be right.