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Five Checker Play Whoppers from Today's Matches vs Kenji

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Saturday, 15 October 2011, at 12:15 a.m.

In Response To: Five Checker Play Whoppers from Today's Matches vs Kenji (Paul Weaver)

1. Blue is 30 pips down, so despite White's inefficiently stacked 6pt, I think he can't count on racing vig and must hope for a shot. The main question seems to be whether to split with 21/20. Though this does give White some attacking rolls, often Blue will enter deeper in White's board, which increases his chances of getting a shot, so it loses less than it might seem at first glance. I don't, however, see a lot of immediate gain by playing 21/20. White's 62 will now be played 8/2 6/4* rather than 8/2 8/6, but that doesn't seem like a big gain. Everything else seems to play O.K. for White. So I'd just build my board with 9/3.

2. Blue's gammon value is slightly elevated and gammon losses don't matter so I think 7/2* is indicated. The ace is not as obvious. 8/7 minimizes shots but reduces builders. I'd try 7/6 7/2*.

3. White's board is strong and ours is weak so we'd like to play safe, but we can't clean up all of our blots. I think it's important in this sort of position to make the 6-away point from White's anchor, so that she can't pop her checkers out too freely. I would play 13/10 despite leaving three blots; again, gammon losses don't matter. Alternatives such as 14/13 10/8 or 7/5 6/5 just don't seem to give White any problems.

4. The first candidate is of course 18/11*. White's 42 or 54 from the bar gain big for us. Of course White's hitting rolls besides 42 are pretty painful, but it's DMP so gammons don't matter, and we still have some vig from our ace-point game. What are the alternatives? Playing 24/18 with the 6 seems to give up our anchor prematurely. White will happily hit us loose and win easily a large percentage of the time. Nothing else looks appealing; we can play relatively safely with 9/8 9/3 or maybe 8/7 8/2 but these don't seem to gain as much as 18/11*.

5. Slotting with 7/4 seems unnecessarily bold but getting another builder with 7/5 looks appealing to me. I'd play 18/15 7/5.

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