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Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?

Posted By: sebalotek
Date: Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 5:59 p.m.

Hi,

I'm about casual / intermediate level so apologies if this is a basic, or badly worded question.

I've finally woken up to the fact that in my matches against GNU there is a fairly repeated pattern for me to get into a reasonably good position but then perhaps one or more chequers gets hit, blocked in by a 5 or 6 prime and then I am forced to crunch (perhaps to 3 or less points). I would guess that about 20% of my game losses end this way. I think this is too high?

I've also noticed that GNU *very rarely* ends up with a severely crunched board like I do even when I win. But I haven't really noticed an obvious strategy it is using to avoid this. Although with more thought, I guess it must usually be aiming for a priming game..

I have some initial ideas for how I might mitigate this:

1. Should I focus more on building advanced anchors in the early game?

2. Should I focus more on running my back chequers to safety?

3. Should I focus on building a medium-deep counter-prime?

4. Should I play with more aggressive building blots and worry less if I get hit; recirculate for better timing?

5. Avoid backgames. Maybe I'm playing too aggressively and having too many blots sent back? (my in-backgame chequerplay movements are occasionally completely the wrong short-term theme).

Are any of the above indeed correct strategies to avoid later crunching?

And are there any other tips anyone can give to reduce these situations?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Messages In This Thread

• Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
  sebalotek -- Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 5:59 p.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    Casper Van der Tak -- Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 6:14 p.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    Mike Clapsadle -- Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 7:17 p.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    Chase -- Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 8:35 p.m.
    • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
      sebalotek -- Friday, 2 October 2015, at 2:41 p.m.
      • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
        Chase -- Saturday, 3 October 2015, at 12:20 a.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 17 September 2015, at 10:25 p.m.
    • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
      sebalotek -- Friday, 18 September 2015, at 9:35 a.m.
      • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
        Casper Van der Tak -- Friday, 18 September 2015, at 10:26 a.m.
      • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
        Timothy Chow -- Friday, 18 September 2015, at 3:10 p.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    ah_clem -- Friday, 18 September 2015, at 6:23 p.m.
  • Rules of Thumb to avoid crunching?
    Stick -- Saturday, 19 September 2015, at 1:50 a.m.