| 142 130 |                        | White money game Blue |
Problem #8 Play Votes Score8/5, 6/4 10 1008/3 2 709/7, 8/5 1 6020/15 0 409/7, 9/6 0 407/4, 6/4 0 406/4, 6/3 0 40
John Bakovic: 8/5, 6/4.
The question here is to slot or not slot the 4 point. My vote is to not too.. 9/7, 8/5 gives you great distribution without giving the direct shot. Breaking from Whites 5 point cannot be correct.
Chuck Bower: 8/3.
5-primes look, feel, and often work so much like 6-primes that Isometimes get lulled into too much of a sense of security. 20/15would be the obvious move if Blue had the 6-prime, but is it righthere? A pure play is 8/5, 6/4 but when White hits with his 14/36chances the resulting situation is very costly to Blue. Not onlydoes White get to start an escaping point, but Blue's entry numbersare often awkward, especially those containing 3's and 4's. Alonganother approach, voluntarily breaking valuable points in contactpositions, especially points in a prime, is almost always wrong.These considerations narrow down Blue's choices.
How about 8/3? Blue would rather make the 4-point, but not asbadly as White would like to own it! The 3-point is decent andallows Blue to roll the (broken) prime by covering 9/3 with a 6 nexttime, for example. If White hits, he's still trapped. This 'tweener'play has a lot going for it, and even though I might not have foundit OTB, I'm voting for it here.
Doug Doub: 8/5, 6/4.
I thought this was the clearest problem of the set. Wehave a limited supply of builders and need to strain to put them where theybelong. I'm not ready to break the 9pt to create more builders. Slottinggives us MANY ways to cover, and keeps five in a row and our anchor intactif we are hit.
Neil Kazaross: 9/7, 8/5.
With out 5 prime not far advanced I feel that White has too much roomto squrim after attacking us if we run 20/15 so that is out of the question. It now looks like a close choice between retaining the 5 prime with 8/5,6/4 or playing the building 8/5,9/7. With White's position looking rather solid I prefer leaving only 4 shots with the building play of 8/5, 9/7.
George Klitsas: 8/5, 6/4.
One more time, "direct road to victory" -or almost!- (and the cube position seems to be in favor of this approach, as well) takes precedence over other considerations and makes 8/5 6/4 my choice. Otherwise, Blue must either break his five point prime (which is bad) or break his anchor on White's five point (which is, simply, out of the question).
Laila Leonhardt: 8/3.
White's 3's play poorly. Putting a blot right where White would want to beand basically risk the whole advantage on White not hitting and coming up tothe edge of the prime, rendering Blue on the bar duplicating his re-attacknumbers doesn't seem even close choice.Leaving the anchor might also be tempting, but again it would leave White achange to hit with some bad numbers and move to edge still with 3s and Blueperhaps on the bar.Sit tight, wait for White's position to fall apart or put you in a positionwhere you'll have to attack.
Snowie: 8/5, 6/4.
Now is the time to try to extend my 5-prime into a 6-prime while I stillhave my anchor. If I make some kind of safe play, the dice might notcooperate in the future and I will either have to lose my prime orrun from the anchor before I am completely set up front. After the slot I amin great shape if White misses, and still in pretty good shape if he hits.
Marty Storer: 8/5, 6/4.
Again reminiscent of an old GOL problem. The five-prime isso valuable that Blue should keep it, even at the cost of letting Whitehit and come to the edge with 14 numbers. Slotting, threatening a fullprime or a rolled-forward five-prime, seems clearly better than 20/15.If White can attack, he'll have time to split and make it hard for Blueto improve the forward position.
Bob Stringer: 8/5, 6/4.
20/15 is unbelievably bad. That anchor has to stay for now, for ifWhite successfully attacks and makes his five point, he'll havegone a long way toward buying the time to escape his two back men.Nor can I see a reason to dismantle the 5 prime. 8/5, 6/4 keepsthings nice and flexible, and starts the next point in order. Theother prime-maintaining plays have less to recommend them. 8/3 hasthe advantage of not allowing White to both hit and get into aposition to escape with a 6, but it's less flexible because bothextra checkers are left on the same point. 6/4, 6/3 is simplybeyond me.
Casper van der Tak: 8/5, 6/4.
With problem 2 the only problem in which I immediately made up my mind. Slotting the next point of the prime, while maintaining the prime and backed up with the anchor - must be the play.
Kit Woolsey: 8/5, 6/4.
It is usually right to make the big slotting play in this sort of position.The gains when it works are huge. If White hits, it is far from the endof the world, and if White misses I will be a big favorite to roll my primeone notch further and perhaps complete the full prime. Completing the fullprime is very important, since with the full prime to back me up I canafford to leave the anchor and it will be very difficult for White toattack and form a counter-prime which he would need to do in order towin frontwards. If I haven't completed a full prime, leaving the anchorwill always be very dangerous.
Chris Yep: 8/5, 6/4.
Blue has a strong 5-prime, but his position is getting a little ahead of itself. In prime vs. prime positions it's often right to play very "purely," i.e. slotting the next point in line. If the slot is hit, the downside is sometimes minimized because the first player can at least slow down his forward movement by staying on the bar awhile. This position isn't really a prime vs. prime position since only Blue has a strong prime. However, some of the same ideas likely apply. Blue has an advanced anchor. If Blue slots the 4 point and is hit, he can at least recirculate the checker and hold his prime. If White anchors on the 21 point, the timing represented by the recirculation will be important. If missed, Blue has a chance to advance his prime forward and decrease his awkwardness. (Right now Blue's position suffers from having front-loaded builders, including a stacked 6 point.) Thus I like 8/5 6/4 (6/4 6/3 is too loose and reduces the number of covers for the 4 point next turn).
Summary: The majority of the panel was quite comfortable with thethematic slot at the edge of the prime. I am confident that this isthe proper approach with this position.