Problem of the Week #87: December 5


Cash Game. Center cube. Black on roll.




Black to play 6-2.


Note: All ‘cash game’ problems assume the Jacoby Rule is in effect. No gammons can be scored unless the cube has been turned.

bar/23 22/16. I am tempted to hit on our bar, but I dont like the disconnection it creates between our checkers should we lose our midpoint. the 16 point helps us control the outfield, and we stilll have plenty of time (and checkers) to make a second anchor if we want it.

Bar/23 is automatic and then there are 5 possible 6s. 20/14*, 22/16, 24/18, 16/10 and 13/7*.

Im discarding 13/7 at once because it gives me 6 blots and thats real bad. It also breaks down my midpoint completely.

16/10 doesnt do anything for me other then removing a double direct hit and making it a single direct hit. It maintains my 5-3 backgame, but it can make me lose another 14 pips but gain some timing so it has merits.

24/18 blots the barpotint that I would want to make but it doesnt really gain as much as the last 2 plays.

22/16 secures a point in the outfield that spells trouble for my opponent. Its also a point we can use when we are leaving the back. It leaves the 22 point, but we can remake that and we also have several builders for making the barpoint or 21 point which are more desirable then the 22 point anchor.

20/14* abandons our anchor on 20 but it hits one of the builders for that exact point. If we hit it we are still 20 pips behind in the race, but that gain can be crucial.


Only 2 candidates are for me 20/14* and 22/16. I dont really want to leave that sweet 20 anchor just yet even though only a few shots makes that for my opponent. I dont have that much timing for a backgame just yet but we should anyway play forward from here. I feel giving up our anchor on the 20 point is too costly right now so I play:

bar/23 22/16.

Weird position. It's hard to figure out what our plan is supposed to be. The good part is while we've been busy moving our checkers backwards, the only structural progress white has made is advancing his back anchor 1 point. Also, the cube isn't turned, so if whatever we try goes to complete ****, we only lose a single.

At this point, it's hard for me to define what plan we want to be on. It's not as hard to define what white needs to do. White needs to make some forward points. White needs to do something with his back men. White needs to avoid getting a guy contained. Just playing to counter those ideas, I don't want to break either home anchor because that gives him another landing spot. I don't particularly want to move off the 24 because that can turn into an anchor or anchor the 23. I don't actually care at all if he hits me on the 16 (or 13) because that just helps my timing. I don't want him to anchor on my bar point because that lets him play more speculatively up front because he'll always have a path to recirculate his checkers. It also stops any hope I have of making a mini-prime anytime soon. If I don't want him to anchor there, I'd better hit it now. The downside is that losing the midpoint splits my checkers.. but I really don't care right now. If I keep hopping guys into the outfield and they keep getting hit, I just wind up in a perfectly decent backgame. At some point, I have to find a way to win the game, and it seems better to prepare for the containment plan that it does to try to turn a 40-pip disadvantage around by moving guys forward with 22/16 or 20/14.. although switching plans isn't inconceivable if white leaves a few blots up front.

bar/23 13/7*

B/23 22/16

I think the gameplan is to get outfield control and make it very hard for white to get his back checkers home safely. Attacking too far in front (like hitting the checker on the bar point) is not good because you don't have the follow-up to maintain that attack. You're also not really being threatened by leaving blots in white's home board because he doesn't have a lot of pointing numbers plus he also lacks the follow-up. Build some more outfield structure and wait for a better time to start attacking something.

Since black is so far behind in the race, has no board, and cannot blitz, it doesn't look like hitting is going to be that useful. I don't think it pays to break the midpoint or defensive 5 point to hit. It looks like control of the outfield will be important. So...

Answer - bar/23, 22/16

no cube! im comining in on the 23 and hitting on the 7.
wooo hoo 5 blots

Grunch.

The hit on 14 reduces the racing advantage significantly. But this is far from a race. The value of keypoints are going up. The goldenpoint. The midpoint. I would simply make the 16 point, bringing one man from the rear simply at work again. So this can be another connecting bridge. With this point, we are able to abandon the midpoint, if needed. The three blots deep in the white board are difficult to attack. They can easily form a second point. So all doors open, no curtain closed.

Bar/14.

Make the 16. I don't see him launching much of an attack on the blots on the 3 or ace before we have a chance to remake something.

Maybe I'm totally off, but I'd also hit 20/14 before I played 22/16. 22/16 gives him 2 dice to make a point (and another place to make it), and we have a decent chance to remake the 20. Getting sent back isn't that big a deal, and 20/14 punts one of his builders and only lets him play one die this turn. We're so far behind in the race that I don't think we can just rely on generic outfield control to make up 40 pips. I think you need to go out of your way to disrupt him (one way or another).

Hi,

In the pure style era players tended to play these positions as backgames and would play for instance bar/23 16/10.
But in modern play its seen as wrong to stick to a backgame structure.
More important is the idea to put an emphasis on a sound structure.
After bar/23 and 22/16 black has a solid playable and connected position, the plan is to play the 3 back blots home over the neatly spread landing points.

At this point, Black is so far behind that a backgame seems certain. The 2 is forced and we have plenty of possible 6s. At some point, Black needs to start making some offensive points, so I would play 13/7*

My pick : B/23 13/7*

Bar/16, as explained in the text.

I looked at the other answers before posting so this is not pure grunch...

My first reaction (before looking at the other posts) was B/23 20/14* this leaves five blots and is probably wrong.

after reading the other posts I have to say that B/23 22/16 leaves us with a beautiful and flexible position to fight from. This looks like it is correct.

bottom line: I probably would have played this wrong OTB...that's why I read this forum

The way of this sort of thinking is in "new ideas in backgammon". The best book of backgammon i've ever read, and i remember the one year where i worked almost the night shift, and working through this book. I got the idea, that backgammon is something completetly different then i thought before. Bills explanations on the problems of the week are in this direction. New ideas is a fragment, but it shows, how the whole should be.

B/16 would be for a 6-3 roll. For 6-2, it's B/23 22/16.

Don't start taking those lazy shortcuts!

Bar/23 and 20/14*, I can't imagine playing anything else.

It is easier to say which six is wrong than it is to know which is right. Breaking the midpoint must be wrong. So, if Black should hold onto his midpoint, then there are only two reasonable choices left. Black can hit, bar/23, 20/14*, or he can make an outside point, bar/23, 22/16. Although there is no overriding reason not to hit, there is very little to gain. This game has a long way to go, and there will be plenty of opportunities to hit later. When Black does hit now, White can make Black's bar point on the return with any seven, plus 51, 53, 54 and 55, (13 shots). If Black passes up the hit, then White can make the bar with any five (15 shots). Left unmolested, White can also cover on his eleven point with twos and sevens (13 shots). Uncertain which move is best, my choice now is to make the outside point, and setup the lines of communication.

My solution: bar/23, 22/16.

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. Grunch: I have been answering these problems without the use of a bot, and before checking the excellent solutions of others, since Problem 28. My record at this writing is 52%.

You're right. And B/23 13/7* may be also a contender. But B/23 22/16 is the winner, nearest to modern backgammon.

My initial reaction was to make the 16, but the more I look at it, the more I like the hit on the 14.

Its just far too early to give up going forward. The hit gains ground in the race, takes away half his roll and sends a 4th(!) checker back out of building-range. We will probably be able to remake the 20-point soon anyway.

If Whites position was more threatening or if he had more checkers escaped I would probably make the 16.

I really don´t like hitting on the bar though. That hit gains less than the hit on the 14 in all respects (breaks the important midpoint, doesn´t escape a back checker and it gains less in the race.)

bar/23 20/14*

bar/23 22-16. Agonizing.

bar/23, 22/16

Not a whole lot of benefit in hitting white here. We are way behind and have nothing going in our home board. I think we sit back and make it hard for white to get his last 2 men home, while slowly building up a home board.

I think its too early to launch an attack on the 7 point since white hits back a ton, it leaves us pretty disconnected, and we gain little.