Problem of the Week #58: April 11


Cash game, center cube.




Black to play 6-3.


Note: All ‘cash game’ problems assume the Jacoby Rule is in effect. That is, you can’t win a gammon unless the cube has been turned.

I'd build the bar point (13/7 10/7). if white hits open blot maybe we'd get a good roll to build an anchor. Seems like the best play except for stripping the 13.

13-10 to cover and then 9-3 to get ourselves out of danger.

Ten point should be better than the barpoint when opponent has made his 5 point, so 13/10. I would love to start splitting the back checkers, but 24/18 just leaves too many shots and pretty much no bad rolls for white, so just the quiet 9/3.

The bar point and the ten point are tempting but both strip the midpoint. I like 24/21 10/4 it gets us off
the 24 point and starts the four. We will be dead even in the race after we play our number and I belive fighting for an advanced anchor is much more important then making the blocking ten point or bar at this stage

I don't see how you can run and leave even more hitting numbers, so that leaves 3 choices. Make the 10, make the 7, and make the 3. The advanced anchor is owning our soul, and since our would-be blocking structure is frontloaded, and the race is about even, I'm not sure what making a small number of points in front of it does, since we're likely to be tossing checkers over the top pretty soon anyway, and the 10 would just be a pain to clear. Since we probably have to clear it (or the midpoint) before white has to clear his anchor, making the 10 is almost a liability. If we're going to be making home points over the top, we may as well use one of the useless checkers on the 6 to make a home point this turn and get the process going, instead of stripping the midpoint to make a basically useless (although easier to clear than the 10) temporary point on the 7.

9/3 6/3

24/18 13/10

Black must split. It may be dangerous but next roll it will likely be worse.

13/10 is very obvious in my opinion. You strip the midpoint (but you have to do it sometime...), but you make an outer board point who can be part of a prime in front of the anchor.

After that, 9/3 looks tempting, but you can't do anything more with that checker.
13/7 is ridiculous.
So splitting the back checkers looks best to me.

I think the play is 13/10 24/18.

The bar point looks tempting but not effective as a blocking point against the advanced anchor. My initial thoughts were to split and dump a checker on the four point with 10/4 24/21. I now believe we should split and keep all our checkers in front of the anchor which leaves us with 24/18 13/10.

13/10 24/18. If we dont create action now it gets bad fast.

After reading the replies I have to say that 24/18 13/10 is superior to my first thought of building the bar point.

Answer - 10/4, 9/6
White already has an advanced anchor. Why bother making the bar point and give him a shot when the bar point doesn't do any blocking?

Another Toughie
Problem 58 is a position that offers three or four possible moves for Black, two of which I like more than the others. The ones I don't like make a point on Black's side, but leave an outside blot.

• Play A: Make in inside point, 9/3, 6/3
• Play B: Make the bar point, 13/7, 10/7

The bar point offers little opposition to White's anchor, and while making the three point isn't bad, it doesn't seem to be worth the cost of leaving an outside blot. Black would be better off slotting inside this time, rather than leaving a blot outside. That's just what Play C does. Play D is an unusual alternative that I like, but probably shouldn't be played here.

• Play C: Make the ten point, 13/10, 9/3
• Play D: Bid for an advanced anchor, 24/21, 10/4

The pip count is dead even after Black plays this roll, so he should be reluctant to leave an outside shot unless the potential reward matches the risk. Here, the benefits of Play C are just as good as either Play A or B, but come with no risk whatsoever. Play C makes a nice blocking point, and safeties the checker from the nine point. It's my solution to this problem.

Bidding for an Advanced Anchor
The only alternative that intrigues me is Play D, 24/21, 10/4. This odd play is intended to bid for an advanced anchor, something I'm still learning to try for in these sorts of circumstances.

By making an advanced anchor early, White has eliminated two of the three fundamental strategies available to Black. Priming is out. So is attacking. That leaves only running as a game plan for Black. Tacticly, his best ploy is to counter White's anchor by making one of his own, and the sooner he gets started on that, the better.

The blot he leaves on the nine point duplicates the shot White has from the seventeen point. Still, it is this blot that makes me reluctant to try the major split here.

My solution: 13/10, 9/3.

For the Record
I am so often wrong that I like to post my record in these messages. It's kind of a truth-in-advertising thing. I have been answering these problems without the use of a bot, and before checking the excellent solutions of others, since Problem 28. Including the 39a tossup, my record at this writing is 53% correct.
20 Correct: 28a, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39a, 39b, 42b, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48a, 48b, 50, 52b, 53, 57. 18 Incorrect: 28b, 31, 33a, 33b, 34, 37, 40a, 40b, 41, 42a, 46, 48c, 49, 51, 52a, 54, 55, 56.

Having now read the replies of others, I see that 24/18, 13/10 is beginning to be the consensus solution. I can see why. It gets the backmen in motion, and may result in Black gaining the advanced anchor he needs to match White's. It's the kind of play I see GNUBG make all the time.

Still, I wonder if it's correct here. It gives White a hit with every number except 3: 1, 2 and 6 hit on the eighteen point; 4 hits on the nine point, and, although unlikely to be attractive, 5 hits on the twenty-four point.

I don't see the point to play completely safe and behind White's anchor. I would make the barpoint while cleaning up one blot. The remaining blot acts as a bait. If White is willing to hit and leaving the anchor, then we could hit back.

13/7 10/7

The thing is: the blot you cleaned with your play, can easily be filled with a checker of the midpoint, so you have a better play to make with the other 6 in my opinion.

I'd probably make the 3 point and wonder if I should have tried to split with 24/18 13/10.

Another tough one. I really dont like slotting our opp's bar point here. This just leaves white with way too many good rolls.

I prefer 13/10, 9/3 slightly over 13/7, 10/7.