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Another variant

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Thursday, 11 August 2011, at 11:59 p.m.

In Response To: Another variant (Kevin Whyte)

Kevin Whyte wrote:

I'm starting to think the explanation, whatever it is, is more subtle than I had expected.

Recognizing this fact is a key step to becoming an advanced/expert player.

For this particular decision, I think you will get an excellent first approximation by thinking in terms of the famous trichotomy of "race, attack, prime." After 55P, your opponent is eager to pursue either a racing play (because of the extra pips) or an attacking plan (because of his extra attacking power, with ten checkers in the zone). He is not eager to pursue a priming plan, because his structure is not conducive to building a prime, and because a pip count lead is often a liability in a priming game (poor timing). Given a choice, you therefore want to pursue a priming plan.

Some of your variants change several factors at once, so that the relative merits of race/attack/prime are disturbed in a complicated way. But you'll generally be in the right ballpark if you think in terms of game plan and overall board position rather than in terms of isolated facts. The purpose of noting facts such as pip count, board strength, number of shots, etc., is not to plug them blindly into some magic formula but to develop an accurate overall picture of what is happening in the position so that you can find the right plan.

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