Cash game. Center cube. White on roll.

Position (a): White to play 5-1.

Position (b): White to play 5-1.

In the opening, plays that hit blots or make key points tend to easily dominate all other maneuvering plays. Interesting choices, however, arise when both plays are available. Do you hit, or do you make a point?

Five simple rules guide most of these plays.

(1) The stronger your inner board, the more you want to hit and the less you need to make an additional point.

(2) The better the point you can make, the more you want to make it.

(3) If you can make a point while unstacking, your desire to hit goes down.

(4) If you have to break a good anchor to hit, your desire to hit goes down.

(5) If you have a vulnerable, exposed blot, your desire to hit goes up.

These two positions illustrate the relative importance of rules (4) and (5). Note that in both parts of this problem, points (1) through (3) all suggest making the 5-point as the better play. White has a weak inner board, the 5-point is the best point available, and he can make the 5-point while also unstacking the 6-point.

In part (a), the decisive criterion is that White now has a great anchor on Black’s 4-point, and to hit, he’d have to break that anchor. So making the 5-point is clear, and in fact every hitting play is just a blunder.

In part (b), however, the picture changes. Now White has no anchor, so hitting doesn’t cost him an asset. In addition, making the 5-point now leaves the checker on the 21-point exposed to nine pointing numbers (11, 22, 44, 54, 52, and 42) plus some annoying double-hits (23, 43, 53). In addition, Black gets great diversification because his escaping numbers (all sixes) don’t duplicate his other good numbers. Hitting becomes essential for White both to gain ground in the race and to protect his otherwise vulnerable blots. In fact, making the 5-point now becomes a blunder!

After hitting in part (b), how should White play the ace? The right play is 16/15, because it duplicates Black’s threes: Black now needs threes to hit in the outfield and threes to anchor.

Cash game. Center cube. White on roll.

Part (a): Should White double? If White doubles, should Black take, drop, or beaver?

Part (b): Should White double? If White doubles, should Black take, drop, or beaver?

When contemplating a middle game double, don’t make the mistake of looking only at your position. Remember to look just as carefully at the weaknesses in your opponent’s position. It may be his weakness, rather than your strength, that gives you a good double.

Part (a) is a perfect case in point. White has escaped his back checkers and built a little structure, while Black has grabbed your 5-point. In most positions of this general type, White’s advantages wouldn’t even add up to an initial double. But now look at Black’s position:

> His back men are split and vulnerable to potential blitzing rolls like 66, 55, and 44, both now and on subsequent rolls. If his two back checkers were anchored on the 23-point or the 22-point, the position wouldn’t be a double.

> His front position is still chaotic and will be for a couple of turns. If he had a small 4-prime or even a good board with, say, the 4-point and 5-point made, he’d have a threat to contain any checker hit on the next couple of turns, and White wouldn’t have a double.

But with both these weaknesses, Black’s game is toothless enough so that White has a very solid double. Black still has a clear take of course.

In Part (b), White is off to a decent start. He’s got a good defensive anchor, while on the offensive side he has – well – something. He’s got some great points slotted, and next turn he might actually cover one or two of them.

The key to the position is not White’s game but Black’s. While White has something, Black has a bit less than nothing. No points, just blots. Something versus nothing is a good prescription for an early double, especially if the defender doesn’t have an anchor. Without an anchor, there will always be variations where things go terribly wrong and White’s messy position turns into a powerful blitz. Did you stop to guess what White’s cubeless gammon chances were in Part (b)? If you did, did you realize they’re over 25%? Numbers like that almost always guarantee not just an initial double, but a strong and mandatory initial double. White’s checkers aren’t just passive slots. They’re also potential attackers, which can be activated by a single good sequence. Couple that with a rock-solid defensive anchor, and White has a great double.

Clear take, of course. There are plenty of variations where things don’t go so well and Black recovers quickly.

Cash game, White owns the cube. White on roll.

White to play 2-1.

Slotting to make a key point and splitting your back checkers are two tactical ideas that dominate early-game play when more obvious choices like hitting blots and making points aren’t available. The 1970s and 1980s were the heyday of slotting. The preferred method of winning a game was to build an imposing prime (often by slotting points, then covering) and follow it with a crushing double. The older method, taking the points you were given and looking for a chance to escape your back checkers, was seen as antiquated and wimpy, a game plan only suited for geezers playing in the park.

read more…

Cash game, center cube. White on roll. White to play 5-3.

Many backgammon problems boil down to a simple question: hit, or don’t hit. In essence, backgammon is a pretty simple game. In general, you want to make points, and in general, you want to hit.

read more…

Cash game, center cube. White on roll.

(a) Should White double?

(b) If doubled, should Black take, drop, or beaver?

Early game doubles cover a wide variety of positions, but in general they can be spotted by analyzing three key aspects of the game: race, position, and threats. Many years ago, Joe Sylvester (a very great player in the 80s and 90s, now somewhat inactive) coined a simple rule: if you’re ahead in two out of three of these aspects, you have a double. Your opponent may or may not have a take. Let’s evaluate these three features of Problem 12 and see what they tell us.

read more…