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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.
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.
White is off to a good start in this position. He’s neatly filled in his 3, 4, and 5-points, making a strong home board. Black has only managed to escape one back checker, getting it as far as his 8-point.
Money game, center cube, White on roll.
(a) Should White double? If he does, should Black take?
(b) Assume White doubles and Black takes. How should White play the following rolls:
6-6
4-4
2-2
6-4
6-2
4-3
Sometimes a six from the bar will allow us to do something obvious and good, like hitting a blot or building a point. When we can’t do anything good, we’re usually faced with a choice among several unappetizing alternatives. That’s the case here. We have four legal sixes: 8/2, 13/7, 21/15, and 22/16. None look great, but we have to pick one. Let’s set up some guidelines and see if they can lead us to the least unappealing six.
The 5-point is a strong point. In the abstract, it’s the best point there is, so hitting to make the 5-point later is often a good idea. But making an anchor is a good idea too, and very often correct. If we could only do one of these good things, we’d do it. But here we can do either but not both, so we have to pick and choose.
