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BGonline.org Forums
A most challenging quiz on bearing off
Posted By: ah_clem In Response To: A most challenging quiz on bearing off (Phil Simborg)
Date: Monday, 1 May 2017, at 3:55 p.m.
I went through it and got half correct by applying the advice of that bananaboater dude over at rgb: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.games.backgammon/KzbMdEX1wWY/elclrdVtAwAJ
While bearing off against low anchor games (24pt, 23pt) you won't always find the best play. You can however not commit large errors by following some general principles. Here a couple that would apply are, not in order of importance:a) Do not stack men on your lowest point unless you absolutely have to. Your lowest point here is your two point. The more men you shove to this point the less checkers you will have off when you ultimately leave that shot and if it's hit, it's serious the number of men you have off. Shoving spares to your deepest point also assures a lack of flexibility in the bearoff.
b) Clear or prepare to clear your rearmost point(s). Generally it's the back point, we all know that. But we should look ahead sometimes to the next point in line too because once the back point is gone guess what? We have a new back point that needs to go. It needs to be stripped down and removed asap.
c) Your spares should look like a wave (or a triangle or a Christmas tree or a pyramid or whatever you can remember) They should be low in the back (no spares on the high points), high in the middle (spares on the middle points), and low in the front (no spares on the lowest point. Follow this advice in general and you won't go wrong.
Now, it wasn't always clear how to apply this advice, and several of the "wrong" answers were small errors. Also, the answer often depended on the opponent's structure and the above advice does not take that into account.
Good quiz, although it would be helpful to hear someone's assessment of why is a few cases.
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