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Pos. of the Week (10/1 and 10/8/23): Blue to play 32 - ANSWERS

Posted By: Nack Ballard
Date: Saturday, 14 October 2023, at 8:46 a.m.

In Response To: Position of the Week (10/8/23): Blue to play 32 (Nack Ballard)

White is Player 2 score: 0 pip: 153 Unlimited Game Jacoby Beaver pip: 140 score: 0 Blue is Player 1 XGID=-aA--BDB-a-BcB-b-c-eA-A---:0:0:1:32:0:0:3:0:10 Pos. of the Week 10/1/23: Best is 11/9/6*

White is Player 2 score: 0 pip: 151 Unlimited Game Jacoby Beaver pip: 140 score: 0 Blue is Player 1 XGID=-aA--BDB-a-BcB--bc-eA-A---:0:0:1:32:0:0:3:0:10 Pos. of the Week 10/8/23: Best is 22/20 5/2

Above are two positions. You'll see them side by side if you can make your screen sufficiently wide. Both are "Positions of the Week." The first (left) position is from October 1st. The second (right) position is from October 8th.

They are almost identical. The difference is that White owns her 10pt in the first position, She owns her 9pt in the second. This key difference, which nobody mentioned, significantly impacts how Blue should play 32.

For the first position, respondents gave two correct answers (11/9*/6) and one incorrect answer (22/20 5/2). For the second position, respondents gave two correct answers (22/20 5/2). Taken together, four out of five correct.

In 2014, I posted the second position (scroll down for link). Respondents gave six correct answers (22/20 5/2) and three incorrect answers (22/20 6/3, and 7/4 6/4, and one volunteered after the fact he would have played 2nd or 4th best). Nobody mentioned the effect of White's 9pt then either, though there was less reason to do so (no contrasting position posed).

In responding to the first position (13 days ago), Tim correctly chose 11/9*/6, but he also made this comment: "QF makes me think the bot plays 22/20 5/2, at least at some score. Years ago, there was some discussion here on BGO of plays like that."

Tim is right. I illustrated and discussed both positions, though in the opposite order, in this April 2014 post entitled Tough 32... (actually, that's the follow-up post -- my original post posed just the position).

Three years later (August 2017), I posted a similar position entitled A legally rolled 43.... This time, respondents gave two correct answers and two incorrect answers.

I haven't looked for them, but if memory serves, there were a couple of posts prior to 2014 with the same shift-to-lower-point theme. As I recall, one was a single-pip shift (such as 5pt to 4pt) and the other was a double-pip shift (such as 5pt to 3pt). The positions linked above involve a triple-pip shift.

Nack

Messages In This Thread

• Position of the Week (10/8/23): Blue to play 32
  Nack Ballard -- Sunday, 8 October 2023, at 2:30 p.m.
  • Position of the Week (10/8/23): Blue to play 32
    Frank Berger -- Sunday, 8 October 2023, at 3:56 p.m.
  • Position of the Week (10/8/23): Blue to play 32
    Timothy Chow -- Monday, 9 October 2023, at 1:04 p.m.
  • Pos. of the Week (10/1 and 10/8/23): Blue to play 32 - ANSWERS
    Nack Ballard -- Saturday, 14 October 2023, at 8:46 a.m.