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The Osaka Open 2013 Quiz contest
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: The Osaka Open 2013 Quiz contest (kinchan)
Date: Wednesday, 13 March 2013, at 12:03 a.m.
Thanks for posting these! I haven't looked at the answers yet.
1. I play 9/5* 1/off since it leaves the fewest return shots and gets off the gammon.
2. I stared at this one a long time. If we didn't have a checker on the 6pt then 5/2 would be better than 5/4 5/3. It's tempting to think that adding the extra checker won't change anything, but that's not always true; for example, with only two checkers, a roll of 54 bears both checkers off either way, but here 54 plays better after 5/4 5/3 than after 5/2. If we had two shakes to get off then I'd have trouble figuring out which would be better. But if we get only one shake—which is quite possible—then 5/4 5/3 bears off with 44 while 5/2 doesn't. So I'll go with 5/4 5/3. Oh, I guess there are a couple of other plays that leave two checkers on the same point but I can't believe that that's the right idea.
3. 8/6 1/off trying to pick up the other checker.
4. Holding the prime with something like 8/5 in order to get White to crash risks blotting on 65 or 63, and White is not that likely to crash anyway. I'd just clear the 7pt with 7/6 7/5.
5. We're still a little bit behind in the race after this roll but there's no good way to keep our anchor. After 21/15(2) we could try the aggressive 13/7(2) but it leaves us rather inflexible. I'd play 21/9(2).
6. We're in serious danger of getting attacked. I don't see any plausible play that leaves no shots. If we hit with 6/5* then it seems that the 4 must be played 10/6; 6/2 just gives White good 6's for no reason. But 10/5* leaves a double shot at two blots. The only other candidate I see is 7/2, trying to protect our blot by strengthening our board, and leaving only a single shot. Tough decision but 10/5* just seems too loose. I'll try 7/2.
7. QF suggests that the obvious 24/13 must be wrong but I can't find an alternative I like. We have the stronger board but why get into a blot-hitting contest when we're ahead in the race? And 20/9 leaves White with lots of good hitting rolls.
8. In this sort of position it's often right to make a tempo hit to prevent White from using her full roll up front. It looks like we may have tried that last turn with 6/1*, with limited success. Do we try again with 6/2*, leaving two blots? The alternative would seem to be to try for an advanced anchor with 24/21 6/5 or 24/23 24/21. Those plays still seem to give White too many good rolls, though. Not sure but I'll try the tempo hit. 6/2*.
9. Here again I look for a tempo hit, but the only one available is bar/22 5/4*, which is pretty radical. Alternatively we could try bar/24 13/10 trying to prime White's straggler, and falling back on an ace-point game if necessary. Our timing isn't good for that though. Finally, we could try bar/22 10/9, but that doesn't seem to accomplish anything. I think White will probably recube us whatever we play so gammon losses don't matter. I'll try bar/22 5/4* but without confidence.
10. Breaking our prime or jumping out with 24/18 can't be right so we're left with 21/17 21/15 or 21/11. The double jump does a better job of harassing White's outfield point, which she may have to break soon. If we get hit it's not the end of the world because we still have an ace-point game. 21/17 21/15.
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