I love watching Mochy play. We are fortunate to live in an era where the matches of the Giants are available for our viewing. Beware, however, of the unclocked ones. Mochy tends to take as much time as he feels like, so there can be long stretches where nothing happens!

Mochy’s primary purpose in the position you posted is to contain the oppponent’s checkers on his bar point. He wants to get a direct shot if his opponent is forced to break the anchor there. Diversifying his inside spares is not really part of the decision. That comes only after the decision to play the 2 outside.

Consider what happens if you run all the way to the 8pt. Then any roll that has 1 is good for the opponent because it hits. But any roll that does not contain a 1 is also good because he can jump over your blot, leaving only a couple fly shots in the outfield. All 36 rolls play decently for the opponent.

Compare this with leaving your blot on the 11pt. You will be hit 15 times in 36, and your opponent will run past you when he rolls 66, 65, 55, or 33. That leaves 16 rolls where you opponent will be squeezed. Some of them are small enough that he can play his spare checker safely inside (32 and 21), but the others (61, 62, 63, 51, 52, and 53) will force him to leave a direct shot. Only 24 rolls play decently for the opponent.

Now that you see how this works, consider other strategies. What about leaving your blot on the 13pt or playing it down to the 10pt? After each of these plays, you can count the number of decent rolls the opponent will have. In the end, you will reach the same conclusion that Mochy did.

Mike