Problem of the Week #18: July 5


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



Black to play 5-1.

i think bar/24 9/4

bar/24 because white is going to fight for the 20 pt and it would really suck to get pointed on and then possibly have a 2nd checker sent back since black will have to leave a blot no matter what. or white would double hit with rolls like 23 24 22 if black moved bar/20 7/6. bar/20 also leaves crappy ace options i think since 9/8 leaves a double shot and 7/6 lets white escape with sixes. oh and the blot on the 24 point prevents white from dumping checkers in his homeboard, or at least makes it costly

9/4 because 7/2 lets white jump the prime with 6s and leaves a double shot

edit: i'm not so sure anymore because black's board will quickly start to collapse unless he gets hit, so maybe leaving a doubleshot isnt bad actually?

Bringing his last checker around seems to be black's priority, and entering on the ace point makes this extremely difficult. It also leaves him with an unplayable 5 and might force his front position to crunch, so Bar/20 seems to be the right use of the 5. The only way to play the ace after Bar/20 without ruining his position is 9/8. Even though it leaves a double shot, the hitting numbers are duplicated and already strong after he slots white's 5 point. It would also be a costly hit since white would have to abandon black's 5 point to do so.

yea i agree bar 20 >> bar 24 after realizing the blot on the 24 pt will basically be stuck and black will lose his board. plus black is way ahead in race so he just wants to get him home like u said

Still shocked at the results of the last problem of the week, although I guess it goes to show my rust. (Still would prop it lol)

However, I think I will go back into retirement if bar 20/9-8 is not correct here.

Strategically you have a good board, he has nothing, and you can can play loose. Tactically the whole planet is duplicated.

Any variation entering on the ace point is extremely ugly to me. I would rather bar 20/4-3 or maybe even 7-6 rather than bar 24/9-4.

sheets

edit: what dsaxton said.

I play bar-20/9-8 too. We duplicate 4's and 3's nicely and keep our position more flexible.

bar-20 9-8 leapt out at me too, though as I've pointed out in the past, this sort of thing is a lot easier when you know you're in a problem setting. It's like "White to play and mate in three", when you immediately start looking at rook sacrifices and so on when you probably wouldn't over the board.

In this problem there's simply no need to bury a checker on your 4 point. That's a disadvantage that need not be sustained. In this sort of backgame situation there's virtually no disadvantage to leaving hits when your opponent has no board and has to break one of his backgame points to make the hit.

I think the bigger error is creating a large number of awkward rolls with bar/24. Unless you roll perfectly, you're just going to watch your board crash if you play bar/24. At the very least, by playing bar/20 9/8, if you get hit and stuck on the bar, then you can hold most of your board together, so that you have some hope of white rolling poorly and getting stuck trying to clear the ace point. If you lose the bar point while you've still got checkers back, you're in deep trouble.

Yeah. I just played bar/20 and then looked from there. The idea of not playing that was much further down in my consideration.

ah well,
i started answering these when these series started, then i kind of forgot about it. I just read all the old ones i missed. and i guess i will partake again .
the problems seem to have become a lot more interesting.
this board keeps improving. sheets back to backgammon, and i also seen exworldchamp Hallberg on this forum.

ah the problem, i haven;t really thought hard about he problem yet.
but here are my first instincts.

I immediately think that bar/24 must be wrong. it doesn't help excaping the checker at all, and it is not safe anyway, as you have to leave a shot with 9/4 after that, which not only leaves a shoit, but also creates some kind of semi-dead-checker. and from there on, if you don't roll something perfect like 2-6 4-4 4-5 or 4-6 (assuming on some of these rolls white didn't make his 9point) you cannot escape and your forward postion will criple.

so that leaves only bar/20

now how to play the 1?

4/3 leaves least shots but i don't like messing up my homeboard so that goes out the door

7/6 leaves a double shot and 9/8 leaves a double shot

but 9/8 duplicates 4's and 3's , the same numbers white would also like to hit my blot on the 20 point.

so i am pretty sure it is : bar/20 9/8