Here are three problems the early stages of a long match. Try your hand and see how you do.
(A) Match, score 0-0 to 17, center cube.
White to play 3-1.
(B) Match, White leads 1-0 to 17, center cube.
White to play 5-4.
(C) Match, White leads 1-0 to 17, center cube.
Should White double? Should Black take if doubled?
Position (A): This one should have been pretty easy. When you have a 5-prime with a checker trapped behind it and not at the edge, your game plan is to make a 6-prime, and the easiest way to do that is usually to slot the prime from the back, with the idea of covering next turn. White should therefore see this as a pretty good roll and just play 13/9. The play has the added bonus of duplicating Black’s aces, since he now needs ones to hit and ones to get to the edge of the prime.
Hitting with 6/2* is a major blunder. White needs the 3-point or the 9-point to complete a 6-prime, and he only has three checkers that can participate in that fight. Playing 6/2* effectively burns one of those checkers, since the 2-point has no importance yet and White has no need for a tempo hit.
Position (B): A 6-6 on the second roll of the game is usually a great shot, giving White a lead in the race plus a couple of good points. The follow-up, however, can be tricky. With a 5-4 on the next turn, the best play is usually breaking off the anchor with 18/13/18/14. When White doesn’t get hit, he’s got plenty of builders and spares and a good chance of capitalizing on his racing lead.
Attacking with 8/3* 7/3 looks appealing at first glance, but it’s not as strong as you might think. Black has 12 immediate hits (52, 56, 43, 46, 26 and 16) that catch up in the race, plus 5-4 as a great anchoring number. Even when Black doesn’t immediately hit, the game frequently evolves into a holding game where White wants to get off his anchor on the 18-point but can’t.
Position (C): This position is tricky over the board because the solution depends on just how you ‘see’ the situation. If you see this as just a blitz, then it’s clearly not a double. White doesn’t even have a checker in the air and Black just has a 2-point board.
But if you see this through the lens of Joe Sylvester’s Position-Race-Threat matrix, then it looks very different. White leads in the race by 25 pips, 134-159. His position is better, with an extra inner point on his side and a strong anchor on Black’s side. White has threats, with a bunch of numbers to make the 4-point and other numbers that put two checkers in the air. His position is better and it’s threatening to get better still, maybe by a lot. Looked at this way, it’s an easy double and Black has the tough decision. He can take because so far he’s only facing a 2-point board and the threats are not crushing.
