Hi everybody,

I wanted to do something new and annotate a practice match I played against XG about 10 days ago, which I started to annotate for myself. It was the first time I did this. I thought I might as well post it here on 2+2 and see if you guys like it.

If you guys like it, I will post the other games of the match too.
Be mindful though that I am just an amateur player with about an average PR of 6.5 againt XG in 7 point matches. So don't take anything I say for gospel.

I hope you can give further comments on the positions.
I also hope I didn't format it too messy, it was kind of hard to get right in a post here. I appreciate some tips on formatting too.

On to game 1!

Game 1
Popeye : 0 ------------------------ XG Roller : 0
1) 63: 24/18 13/10

21: 13/11 8/7*

2) 32: Bar/23 13/10
1.xg XG Roller+ Bar/22 24/22 eq: +0,053
Player:
Opponent: 50,63% (G:13,72% B:0,60%)
49,37% (G:11,33% B:0,40%)
2.played XG Roller+ Bar/23 13/10 eq: +0,028 (-0,025)
Player:
Opponent: 50,73% (G:14,06% B:0,67%)
49,27% (G:13,82% B:0,52%)

I played much too fast, I was distracted by a chess stream I was watching. I Saw I made a bad move directly after I made the move. I decided from now on to actually concentrate on the match.

2) .......

21: 7/5 6/5

3) 11: 10/9(2) 6/5(2)

51: 24/23 13/8

4) 31: 13/9

41: 11/7 8/7

5) 66: 13/7(2) 9/3(2)

1.xg XG Roller+ 9/3(2) 8/2*(2) eq: +0,259
Player:
Opponent: 52,46% (G:27,03% B:1,10%)
47,54% (G:13,27% B:0,87%)
2.played XG Roller+ 13/7(2) 9/3(2) eq: -0,035 (-0,294)
Player:
Opponent: 47,83% (G:17,79% B:0,96%)
52,17% (G:14,76% B:0,66%)
3. 2-ply 13/1* 8/2*(2) eq: +0,074 (-0,186)
Player:
Opponent: 47,90% (G:26,72% B:0,48%)
52,10% (G:15,20% B:1,01%)
4. 2-ply 13/7(2) 8/2*(2) eq: +0,065 (-0,194)
Player:
Opponent: 49,13% (G:20,61% B:0,87%)
50,87% (G:13,07% B:0,52%)
5. 1-ply 13/1*(2) eq: -0,043 (-0,303)
Player:
Opponent: 45,96% (G:19,46% B:0,56%)
54,04% (G:12,62% B:0,47%)

Triple Whopper. At the time it felt natural to me.
The best move is 9/3(2) 8/2*(2), which is a blitzing move. I assume blitzing is better, for one it wins more gammons, but it also wins more games. I assume this is because I am ahead in the race by 22 pips after the move and it is a disadvantage to be ahead in the race in priming batles. 13/7(2) 9/3(2) is a move that goes for a priming battle, which is exactly what we should avoid.
5) .....

61: 24/23 13/7

6) 63: 24/15

41: 13/12 13/9

7) Doubles => 2
Analyzed in XG Roller+ No double Double/Take
Player Winning Chances: 62,23% (G:17,73% B:0,91%) 62,20% (G:17,84% B:0,90%)
Opponent Winning Chances: 37,77% (G:7,03% B:0,30%) 37,80% (G:7,09% B:0,31%)
Cubeless Equities +0,361 +0,739
Cubeful Equities
xg No double: +0,490
played Double/Take: +0,453 (-0,037)
Double/Pass: +1,000 (+0,510)

Best Cube action: No double / Take
Percentage of wrong pass needed to make the double decision right: 6,3%

I overestimated my position. It was a small mistake to double. Maybe it is because it is still somewhat a prime vs prime battle where I am ahead in the race. If I miss the shot on his blot and white makes hereafter the five prime than this would be especially true. Maybe in a tournament match this could be a good practical double against some players as I think there are some players out there who might even pass this cube.


7) ......

Take

8) 44: 15/3 9/5
1. XG Roller+ 15/11 8/4(3) eq: -0,119
Player:
Opponent: 48,81% (G:16,76% B:0,75%)
51,19% (G:7,42% B:0,26%)
2.xg XG Roller+ 15/7 9/5 8/4 eq: -0,137 (-0,017)
Player:
Opponent: 49,68% (G:14,98% B:0,74%)
50,32% (G:10,04% B:0,33%)
3.played XG Roller+ 15/3 9/5 eq: -0,258 (-0,139)
Player:
Opponent: 45,90% (G:12,66% B:0,53%)
54,10% (G:9,45% B:0,31%)
4. 4-ply 9/5 8/4(3) eq: -0,134 (-0,014)
Player:
Opponent: 49,85% (G:13,58% B:0,55%)
50,15% (G:8,02% B:0,30%)
5. 3-ply 15/11 9/5 8/4(2) eq: -0,197 (-0,077)
Player:
Opponent: 47,52% (G:14,87% B:0,73%)
52,48% (G:9,89% B:0,38%)

I thought about 15/7 9/5 8/4 but I did not want to take the risk, as I thought that all I had to do was bring the checkers home, but I was wrong, it was a good move. An even better move would have been to fill the 4-point with 8/4(3) and than either 15/11 or 9/5. Maybe I don't appreciate filling gaps enough,. I would have been afraid to give him double sixes, but I guess I shouldn't be afraid for such a long-shot and be more affraid of the gap on the 4-point.
8).....

61: 12/5

9) 61: 23/16*

41: Bar/21 5/4

10) 64: 16/6

52: 21/16 6/4

11) 43: 8/1

62: 16/10 7/5

12) 61: 7/6 7/1

64: 8/2 6/2

13) 55: 8/3(2) 6/1 5/Off

55: 23/3

14) 64: 6/2* 6/Off

1. 3-ply 6/2* 6/Off eq:+0,309
Player: 66,07% (G:7,30% B:0,07%)
Opponent: 33,93% (G:0,00% B:0,00%)

2. 3-ply 6/Off 5/1 eq:+0,123 (-0,186)
Player: 59,11% (G:3,32% B:0,03%)
Opponent: 40,89% (G:0,00% B:0,00%)

I assumed most important here is just to minimize shots. my move gives 11 shots, while the alternative gives 13 shots. Maybe it is an oversimplification of assessing the position, but it was the right move by a big margin.

14)....

43: Bar/21 10/7

15) 43: 6/3 6/2

22: 7/5(2) 7/3

16) 65: 5/Off(2)

41: 21/16

17) 11: 3/2 1/Off(3)

51: 16/10

18) 43: 3/Off(2)

63: 10/1

19) 42: 3/Off 2/Off

62: ????

Wins 2 point

I made some bad mistakes in this game, lets hope the next games will be better.

Part of the reason why your play is so much worse than the right play is because after you make the right play and White dances you get a good cube in. One way you might be able to see the best play here is to think that on the 16 dances you must be a big favorite due to the cube (I'd even expect to get some passes here), and you certainly win a bunch of games on the many rolls where White enters and doesn't hit, so it must be you're a pretty solid favorite after the blitzing play.

It'd be pretty reasonable to think you're the favorite after your play, but due to the timing issue that you mention, it should at least be questionable.

Yeah, the double's definitely OK in practice against a human.

The duplication of 2s here seems relevant. Push the builder on your 6 back to the 7, and I'm sure it becomes a double.