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Cash game, center cube.
(a) White to play 3-1.
(b) Same position, White to play 3-2.
Here we see a typical sort of early game position where neither side has made much progress yet. Black has played a 5-3 and a 6-3, making the 3-point and running a checker into the outfield. White has rolled a 5-1, balancing his builders and splitting his back men.
Center cube. Money game. White on move.
Should White double? If he doubles, should Black take, drop, or beaver?
White seems to be doing pretty well in this position. He has a 4-point board, while Black as yet has no new home board points made. Black doesn’t have an anchor yet. White can hit on the 4-point with 18 numbers (all 4s, 3-1, 2-2, 1-1, 6-3, and 3-3.) He has a few more numbers to hit on the 1-point, although that’s certainly not his top choice. White leads by a whopping 38 pips in the race. Looks like White’s concrete assets and threats combine to give him a good double. Can Black even take this? Over the board, a lot of players would drop almost instantly.
Before we pass final judgment on this cube, let’s alter the position just a little bit:
Position A: White on roll.
We’ve moved White’s spare on the 3-point back to the 6-point, where it’s active, and we moved the third checker on the 8-point back to the midpoint. White has lost 8 pips in the race, but his checkers are now where they belong and his position is much stronger.
Position A is a strong double for White and a clear pass for Black. (By the way, it’s not remotely close to being too good to double.) Our original position, by contrast, is also a good double but a clear take. White has threats, but he also has a number of bad rolls, and even when he rolls well to start, his checkers aren’t sufficiently well-positioned to follow up.
Now let’s look at the two positions a little more closely. Position A is what I like to call a balanced position. Given the underlying structure, White’s spares are well-placed and effective. Our original position is unbalanced; here White’s spares are in the wrong places. The spare on the 3-point is mostly useless. The extra spare on the 8-point doesn’t do much, and the broken midpoint is costly in both the long and short term.
The difference between balanced and unbalanced positions is visually pretty clear, but the real difference shows up when we examine White’s bad rolls. (The good rolls will play well anyway.) Let’s list White’s worst rolls and see how they play in both the original position and Position A.
6-6: In the original position, this is a disaster; White is forced to play 13/1* 8/2(2), killing two checkers. In Position A, this is a very good roll; White makes the 1-point.
5-5: In the original, this is another awful roll; White switches with 6/1*(2) and plays 13/3, killing a checker. It’s not as bad in Position A, where White plays 6/1* 13/8 13/3.
6-5: In the original, White kills a checker with 13/2. In A, he plays 6/1* 13/7, much better.
6-2: White plays 3/1* 13/7 in the original. In A, he plays 23/15 because he owns the midpoint, rather than having a blot there. Big edge to A.
6-1: In the original, White makes the 7-point, but gives up control of the outfield. In A, he gets to play 23/16 as before. Another big edge for A.
5-3: In the original, he plays 13/8 with either 24/21 or 23/20. In A, he again takes advantage of owning the midpoint by playing 23/15. Huge edge to A.
5-2: Same story. In the original he plays either 13/6 or 13/8 23/21. In A, he gets to play 23/16. Another big edge to A.
5-1: In the original he plays 13/8 23/22. In A he plays the much stronger 6/1* 2/1.
3-2: In the original he gets to play 3/1* 23/20, activating the checker on the 3-point. In A he plays the massively stronger double-hit.
2-1: In the original he plays 3/1* 2/1 as above, activating a bad checker. In A he gets to play 6/4* 23/22, hitting on the more important point.
As this listing shows, the difference between the standard-looking position in A and the inferior position in the original isn’t slight; it’s actually huge. A lot of players look quickly at the original position and actually “see” something more like A. But the exact placement of all the spares matter, and it especially matters in the case of the bad rolls. In tough cube decisions, try to pay at least a glancing impression as to how concrete rolls actually play, rather than get caught up in forming a general sense of the position.
Center cube. Black on move.
Black to play 3-3
(a) in a cash game.
(b) at double match point.
(c) trailing 1-2 in a 5-point match.
(a) Cash game.
As a cash game play, this position has an interesting history. When I started playing serious backgammon in the late 1970s, the game was dominated by a group of aggressive young New Yorkers centered at the legendary Mayfair Club, who emphasized making big plays early on, to set up quick cube turns and gammons. They were bold, ingenious, highly aggressive, and very successful, and most aspiring players followed their lead.
At the time, the old-fashioned play with 3-3 after an opening split to the bar was the obvious 13/7*(2). Why not? It hits a blot, makes a good point, leaves no blots, and unstacks the midpoint. That’s a lot of good things at zero risk. The New Yorkers rejected this play and instead played 13/7* 8/5(2), in accordance with the new (at the time) emphasis on making the 5-point early on no matter what the cost.
When I saw the new play I enthusiastically switched, following my general rule of thumb for beginners: “Ape your betters”. (At least until you know enough to question their judgment.) After a few years, though, I started to have second thoughts. How bad could 13/7*(2) really be? It had a lot to recommend it: good point, no blots, takes a solid initiative. I did some analysis and just couldn’t convince myself there was anything wrong with the play, so I switched and started to play it. I got some hoots of derision, but pretty soon more and more players were switching over, and by the 1990s this simple play was the standard, and the ‘old-fashioned’ 13/7* 8/5(2) looked ‘too loose, too fancy’.
Extreme Gammon rollouts long ago confirmed that 13/7*(2) is in fact best, while 13/7* 8/5(2) is a fairly close runner-up. Also in the mix is 13/7* 6/3(2), also making an inner point, unstacking, and leaving fewer shots and blots. Prior to the bot era, no one would even have considered making the 3-point, although I think most modern players would immediately spot it as a strong alternative.
(b) Double match point.
Double match point is simply any match score where gammons don’t count for either side and the result of this game decides the match. The simplest example occurs when each side is one point from victory. Other match scores can convert into double match point (DMP) pretty easily. For instance, if both players are two away from victory, and someone doubles quickly and the other side takes, then we have a double match point situation by default.
With gammons not counting, strategy in this situation undergoes a few changes. Here’s a quick summary of the major alterations.
1. The best game plans at double match point are (a) escaping your back checkers and winning the race, and (b) building a prime and winning the race. Racing advantages create a lot of wins but not a lot of gammons, which is perfect.
2. Blitzes are a poor choice of game plan unless the dice allow no reasonable alternative; too many gammons, not enough wins.
3. Anchors are less valuable because one of their functions is to prevent being gammoned, which is no longer necessary. The strength of an anchor lies in its ability to transition to a favorable race.
4. Inner board points are still good, but not quite as good. We don’t care about their ability to create gammons but we do care about their ability to create primes.
5. Slotting to build an inner board quickly is mostly wrong.
6. Plays where you run off an anchor to avoid being primed later are commonplace.
7. Escaping the back checkers is even better than usual.
Taking all this into account, it’s not hard to see that 13/7*(2) is even better at DMP than in a cash game. It gains ground in a race while taking no risk of losing ground in the race. The point is useful as well.
(c) Trailing 1-2 in a 5-point match.
Trailing 1-2 to 5, or ‘4-away 3-away’ as it is sometimes called, is a score where gammons matter more than usual for the trailer. If the trailer wins a doubled gammon, he wins the match. If the leader wins a doubled gammon, he still wins the match but some wastage is involved (he doesn’t need the fourth point). As a result, the trailer needs to create positions where he has an elevated chance of winning a gammon, at a reasonable cost. He doesn’t want to go crazy, he just wants to take a little more risk for extra gammon chances.
Both 13/7* 6/3(2) and 13/7* 8/5(2) fit the bill here. They’re the second and third best plays in a cash game, but here the extra inner point creates more gammons at a small cost in raw winning chances. Which of the two is best? A rollout left the two plays in a dead heat. Playing 6/3(2) makes a weaker point, but as compensation it unstacks a big stack and leaves fewer shots.
Cash game. White owns the cube. White on move.
Should White double? If he does, should Black take, drop, or beaver?
In our last problem we looked at a back game where the back game player got a double shot, but still couldn’t double until he actually hit the shot.
While that’s a generally good rule for many normal back game positions, it’s not always the case. When playing a massive back game, stay alert for positions where your opponent’s game has deteriorated so much that you can double much earlier.
