I think many of the less experienced players frequenting the forum are often intimidated by the generally high-level of positions and discussions here -- many with top players like Stick, Neil, UBK, MCG, Ray, Perry, JohnO and others (not trying to slight anyone by omission). These discussions are valued, interesting, and instructive.
However, there are many positions that the average, or above, Open player finds trivial that are rarely discussed here but that are nonetheless most instructive for less experienced players.
As an example, I found myself with this position this morning while playing an intermediate player with another intermediate player watching. It is, of course, a very typical standoff position where I have his bar and he has the mid. He rolled his worst, 5-1, and brought both down -- moaning, groaning, and bitching all the time.
So, I instantly flipped the cube and he dropped it like a hot rock. Then the kibbitzer started explaining to me how I had perhaps erred because he thought it was too good. I started listing my negatives: I miss 39% of the time (and with all the misses except large doubles I become a dog, likely with a blot of my own looking at two shooters), I'm 19 pips down, I could hit and not lift (6-5), if I hit my six point will be either open or vulnerable, etc. I quickly convinced him that not only was it not too good, it was not even a double, and, in fact, it was a gargantuan take if doubled; however, I was convinced the opponent would drop by his inexperience and by his reaction to his bad roll -- such reactions are another lesson for another day.
It is amazing to me how many times inexperienced players will double or drop from this original position even when they've cleared one of the checkers and only have the open six shot at their single checker. But, though they've probably run into the position innumerable times, they've never thought it through or had someone explain it to them.
These are the types of positions the inexperienced player needs to see, experience, and have explained to them. They become an important part of their positional reference database. And, they occur quite frequently.
We need to at times include the basic instructional positions in our discussions in addition to the challenging positions testing even Neil, Stick, etal.
9 point Match
                               | Pip: 58 | |
| Game 1 9 point match Green-White: Score 4-3 | ||
| Pip: 77 |
Output date: 1:16:44 PM, 3/27/2009(Export v2.10)