...13/11 9/5 for O.
You're absolutely right. Good catch! You're starting to nactate better than me.
Tommy likely referred to the Nactation Study, about midway down. The final tie-breaker of the 6pt convention states:
Given a choice of blot/spare left in one's own outer board, furthest from 6pt gets preference.
For further clarification, I'll diagram the examples mentioned there:
Opening 43D is played 13/10 13/9, because the only checkers that can be moved "down" (to or within the inner board) come from the midpoint. If there are checkers behind the midpoint, it is generally better to give them preference. The furthest from 6pt wrinkle provides exactly that relief (giving the preferred D capitalization) -- it puts a blot on the 11pt instead of the 9pt, thereby rescuing the 15pt blot.
[If there were an anchor instead of a blot on the 15pt, e.g., 63R-61P-63@-55P-43D, the most-points convention would prevent one from breaking it and 43D would revert to 13/9 13/10 in that case.]
Here's the other example mentioned in the Nactation Study:
Here, Blue played 13/10. Without the wrinkle, D would mean 13/11 8/7. This example is a little trickier because although the 8pt spare is further from the 6pt than the 7pt blot is, it is also true that the 11pt blot is further from the 6pt than the 10pt blot is. In that case (and I might articulate the wording to make this more clear), you oust the closest blot/spare first -- blotting the 7pt is the cardinal sin.
Returning to the example from this thread:
As Tommy points out, O = 13/11 9/5, and o = 13/11 10/6, by virtue of the fact that the 11pt blot is further from the 6pt than the 10pt blot is. Blots that are further away from the 6pt are more safely tucked away, and in this sort of decision you often won't want to stack on the 6pt anyway (even if it means slotting the 5pt instead of positioning a spare there). This situation arises less often but could be perceived as a third benefit of the wrinkle.
As mentioned in another post, the best play 13/9 10/8 is nactated D (Down -- both/all move portions played to or within the outer board). 13/11 13/9 is relegated to d because it breaks the midpoint; the most-points convention is always obeyed over the (lowest-priority) wrinkle.
Nack
