Backgame: While I agree with the play 18/13, 16/10 - I cannot remotely see calling that a split... Fair enough. Instead of calling it a “splitting” move, I just say it belongs to the S (Split) family. Nack had to name the family something. He could have called it the “Land-one-checker-on-the-far-side-and-the-other-in-the-out-board” family, but, for obvious reasons of length, did not. The only real meaning the word “split” has, Nactation-wise, is in identifying the landing areas of the checkers that are moved. Other than that, it has no meaning. It is just a name, like Taper_Mike or Backgame. One difficultly is that there are only so many letters in the alphabet. S and Z work very well in the early game for moves like 32S and 43Z, not to mention 21S and 64S. These plays actually do split a rear checker. For them, the letter S and the moniker “Split” are natural. Having committed, then, to S, one has to live with the odd non-splitting plays that arise later in the game, and that wind up in one of the split families. Backgame: Just out of curiousity, how does one nactate (the as yet unmentioned, but certainly viable)16/11, 13/7? In an areal or “area-based” Nactation family, the landing spots of the checkers that are moved determine membership. In the case of 16/11 13/7, both checkers land in the outer board, one on the 11pt and the other on the 7pt. Such plays belong in the D (Down) family. In this case, the D family has two members. That is because 16/10 13/8, which puts checkers on the 8pt and 10pt, is also in the the Down family. To determine which one gets the capital letter, remember the wrinkle in the Hit/More/Six rule. That’s the exception whereby the landing spots of spares and blots in the outer board are preferred when they are farther from the 6pt. Landing spots in other quadrants are preferred when they are closer to the 6pt. Landing on the 8pt outranks landing on the 7pt, and so is awarded the capital letter: D = 16/10, 13/8 I hope this helps a bit more than it confuses! Mike | ||||||||||||||
