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Chuck Bower: 18/8.
Shades of last month's problem 6? 13/7, 8/4* is tempting as it takes advantage of White's lack of anchor, and brings more gammons into thepicture. But with Blue's solid race lead (14 pips with White on roll),leaving 20 shots and 2 blots seems anti-thematic as more than half of the time Blue's race lead vanishes. 18/8 tries to skip town before White has built up much of a board. In addition, many of White's return hits give up the midpoint, while most give Blue return shots at an anchorless White.

Steve Clark: 13/3.
I am not prepared to give up constructive points in order to make loosehits. This means that I must choose between the safe but rather ugly playof 13-3 or run with 18-8. We are ahead in the race and White is poorlypositioned to attack a blot on the 18 point. These two factors arguestrongly for trying to escape while we can. The argument against this playis that we have at least some timing so that we will have a good chance toescape under more favorable circumstances in the future. If our timing wasworse I would be more anxious to make this play.
The alternative of 13-3 is no beauty, but my checkers will still be placedreasonably flexibly. I will have plenty of rolls in the future that willplay quite well regardless of how White rolls. I think I am well enough offafter this play that I do not need to make the bigger play of 18-8. I willstick with safe and (to some degree) ugly.

Ray Fogerlund: 13/3.
I doubled early, again??? Having given up the cube... Iwill play a little more quietly, and wait for a set to save me from White's bar point. I'd like to hit loose on the 4 point or hit twice if I hadn't relinquished the cube, but getting hit will signal the turning of the tide of this battle. I'll wait for a more propitious moment to take a gratuitous risk.

George Klitsas: 18/8.
The stripped White midpoint combined with the undeveloped White front position tips the balance in favor of the �pay now� play 18/8. I would rate as second the safe play 13/3, which, unfortunately, does nothing about the problem of the back checkers and as third the bold 13/7 8/4*, which tries to solve that problem indirectly [by closing out White and having all the time in the world to extricate the back checkers, when this plan succeeds] but, this play does not succeed often enough , because it leaves too many shots and blots.

Laila Leonhardt: 18/8.
From earlier problem you will remember the mention of the golden rule of notbreaking your midpoint when you have 2 or more checkers in your opponentshomeboard.This is a great opportunity to give White something to think about. What ifhe rolls a 6 next time? his position is likely to warrant he has to breakthe midpoint to hit and Blue will gain an advantage in spite of being hit.

Rob Maier: 13/3.
See previous answer. I'd like cheese and pickles on my whopper please.

Snowie: 18/8.
Running isn't great, but anything else is either ugly or leaves a shotup front. If I get away with it that is fine, and if I am hit it is nodisaster since White's board isn't formed yet. Maybe I will force him tobreak the midpoint and give me outfield control.

Marty Storer: 13/3.
There's no rush to be rash. Ahead in the race, with agood structure, I can afford to play safe and see whatdevelops. White's back checkers are still under somepressure, and I have plenty of playability even ifthey link on my 4 or 5 point. I see no reason tovolunteer anything when my static advantage is so solid.

Bob Stringer: 18/8.
I have the slightly better position here, and it looks like I have adecent chance to slowly improve it. For that reason, I don't likehitting loose, which gives White a double shot and the chance to wrestthe initiative. 13/7, 6/2 dumps a blot where I don't want him. AllWhite has to do is roll a 3, and I'll have 3 men behind his anchor. Hemay not roll the 3, but then I may not cover the blot on the 2 either.13/3 is reasonable, in that it maintains the position, but I can't seewhat to do for an encore unless I immediately follow it up with areally good roll. My choice therefore comes down to 18/8 or 8/2, 6/2.Making the 2 point gives me the stronger board, but at the risk ofbeing hit. 18/8 does what I have to do eventually -- run. Now seems asgood a time as any, especially since it brings a builder/potentialattacker to the 8 point.

Casper van der Tak: 18/8.
I do not see any other attractive play, so let's try to bring the checkers home. 13/3 might be the main alternative, but that seems very ugly to me.

Kit Woolsey: 18/8.
I would like to attack. Unfortuately hitting both blots breaks two keypoints, and hitting one blot with 13/7, 8/4* leaves a ton of return shots.The race is close and White's board is as strong as mine, so getting hitback is costly. I could play safe with 13/3, but that is ugly. I thinkrunning off the anchor is better. It is awkward for White to hit theremaining checker, since hitting with a six forces him to break thecrucial midpoint and split his army in two. White's board isn't strong,so even if I am hit I figure to get back quickly.

Chris Yep: 18/8.
Blue has a moderate race lead. It looks wrong to leave a blot on Blue's side of the board. The hitting moves appear to be too loose in the current situation and the non-hitting moves which leave a blot on Blue's side of the board (8/2 6/2 and 13/7 6/2) leave a direct shot for not much gain. Among the other two moves 13/3 keeps the anchor. However it has the disadvantage of placing a third checker on the 3 point. With stripped 7 and 8 points, Blue could really use reinforcements on these points. Since White is a favorite to make an advanced anchor (making 3 of Blue's checkers out of play if he plays 13/3), I think Blue does better to make a run for it now with 18/8. Note that 13 of White's 24 hitting numbers break the midpoint while some of White's other hitting numbers are duplicated (4-1, 3-1, and 2-1 are good for him in either case). On the other hand the benefits of 18/8 are quite significant. 18/8 adds a spare to the 8 point, retains a spare on the midpoint, avoids placing a 3rd checker on the 3 point, and starts to convert to a running game by clearing the midpoint when White's board is weak. Although it's often better to hold the anchor until one's spares start to run out, in this position I think Blue does best to run.

Summary: How ugly is that third checker on the three point? Toougly says the majority of the panel. The racing game can work quitewell here.