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BGonline.org Forums
Dk. vs. World 2014 Two Containment Positions
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: Dk. vs. World 2014 Two Containment Positions (Taper_Mike)
Date: Saturday, 19 April 2014, at 4:06 p.m.
Nice problems. I've been surprised in the past at how far behind in the race you need to be to want to get hit when the opponent enters. The motivation for blot-leaving plays is usually that you really want to rip and you don't mind getting hit so much.
In the first position, I would play the pedestrian 7/5 2/off, keeping a closed board. 7/5 1/off(2) rips two but I don't think it's worth leaving a gap. The main alternative would seem to be 7/6 2/off 1/off trying to pick up the second checker. I think I might try this if Blue had more checkers off but I suspect it's not the right strategy here. Also, White doesn't have as many numbers that cover the 1pt since both of her spares are stacked on the 6pt. (An interesting variant would be to shift White's 2pt spare to her 1pt. Now I think 7/6 1/off(3) is a candidate since it rips three. 7/5 1/off(2) is also a candidate since now we have two builders to remake the 1pt, and 7/4 1/off is also a candidate since it keeps a closed board. I don't know what I prefer here; I'd probably still try 7/4 1/off.)
In the second position, we have to break something. Bearing checkers is still important here and I do not think that 6/5 6/3 is better than 3/off 3/2. So I believe the choice is between 3/off 3/2 and 4/off. 4/off leads to a faster bearoff but we'd prefer not to get hit if Blue enters. However, since Blue has a blot, the cost of getting hit is reduced, so I would play 4/off. It's possible that 4/off might even be right when Blue doesn't have a blot, but I'm much less sure about that.
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