Today, I stumbled on Tim's post where he proposes an interesting puzzle for cooperatively reaching "gin" (forced win) from the opening position in the fewest rolls possible.
Daniel is correct that 13 rolls (7 by the first player and 6 by the second player) is the minimum required to achieve (cooperative) gin.
However, with one minor change (White 6pt checker to 8pt, as shown below), it is possible to achieve gin for Blue in just 12 rolls (6 by each player). Can you figure out how?
(For extra credit, make White's pre-gin rolls total as high as possible, so that she is outrolled by the fewest number of pips.)
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In other words, in this puzzle, the players cooperate their rolls and plays until gin is achieved, and thereafter best rolls (trailer) vs worst rolls (leader) is assumed with both sides playing as if to win.
Nack