Cash game, White owns the cube.

White to play 5-1

In backgammon, much of our thinking revolves around assets. What asset can we acquire with a given roll? What asset do we have to give up? One way to look at backgammon is as a series of decisions regarding the accumulation of assets, and the conversion of one asset into another.

Some assets are quasi-permanent, like inner-board points, or primes. Others are more ephemeral, like a racing lead, which can vanish with a single hit. We tend to prefer permanent assets to temporary assets when we have a choice, although usually we’re happy to get any kind of asset we can.

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Cash game, center cube.

Should White double? Should Black take if doubled?

Problem 172 is a position type that we’ve categorized as ‘One Man Back’. White has escaped both his rear checkers, while Black still has one man in White’s home board. Now White is considering a double. What factors go into the evaluation of a double in these positions?

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Cash game, center cube.

White to play 4-2.

If you understood the logic behind our last problem, you should have no trouble with this one, although the two positions belong to different categories. Our last problem was what I call a ‘One Man Back’ position, where the issue was to move up in the board and try to get into a race, or stay back and wait for a better chance later. This position belongs in a category I call ‘Split or Something Else’, where one choice is to split the back checkers and go for an anchor, while the other choice is something different, like making an offensive point, bringing down builders, or just waiting. In this case Play A is splitting with 24/20 13/11, while Play B is to wait with 13/7, gobbling up some of White’s timing in the process.

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