21$-21$-11
How would you nactate top 2 moves of 11?
Very good question, Leonardo. You are referring to 21$-21$-11 played either (a) 11/10 8/7(2) 6/5 or (b) 24/23 8/7(2) 6/5. I'm going to address those two plays and a lot more in this post.
Complex doublets (i.e., with three or different subparts to a move) are by far the trickiest moves to nactate. And while they arise for only a small percentage of plays, they can occur as early as the third roll of the game (as David said).
If you go to Section 6 of the Nactation tutorial, you'll see examples of "assumptive Nactation" or simply called "assumption." The first example is 64S-33P-11 in diagram #30, which I've also diagrammed below, though keep that tutorial page open/accessible if you would prefer to see the after-diagrams (#30a, b, c and d) rather than visualize them.
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| 64S-33P-11 | |
To address Matt's understandable concern, it is worth noting that I used "S" (Split) instead of "U" (Up) for 24/23. This is a little trick I use to distinguish back checker moves with one (or occasionally two) subparts from those with more subparts in the back quadrant. For diagram #30c (where I chose S), U should be okay for high-level play on an assumptive basis, but I would normally save that letter (meaning some member of the U family that I would select with precision in this highly unlikely scenario) to flag me when a player squanders the rest of his aces with the back checkers instead of making his 5pt. More on this in a minute.
Now let's have a look at 21$-21$-11:
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| 21$-21$-11 | |
If the reader audience is strong (and therefore doesn't worry about leaving indirect shots when Opp has an inside point slotted), we can assume the player would make the 7pt here with two of the aces. That assumption trivializes the decision, and favors David's "J" (Jostle) for 11/10 (or d, which I'd prefer to D, would be passable), and Petter's "S" for 24/23. For the third best play, 6/5, David's "F" (Float) is fine, though I prefer N (Near) because it describes the entire move.
If a player is not so strong, a different 5pt-covering move might be played. One possibility is 24/23 11/9 6/5. For this, I like "9" (9pt), with the idea that if the fourth ace were other than 24/23 than I would surely use a different character (e.g., a nonprimary member of the N or F family for 11/9 6/5(2), or "8" if I kept the same checker moving with 11/8 6/5). A nonprimary member of the J family qualifies by similar deduction. It would also work for me to use B (still referring to 24/23 11/9 6/5) for reasons I promise to elucidate in a few paragraphs. No need to be confused by the choices, though, as long as you find one that works for you (most likely "9").
In case you've missed the concept from earlier posts, each character has a hierarchy. For letters, the primary member of a family within a hierarchy is the capital letter. Lower case is secondary. It's a bit unusual to dig deeper, but: italic capital is third, italic lower case is fourth, and in the very rare cases you need more you can repeat the four members but underlined. So, for example, the F hierarchy is [F, f, F, f, F, f, F, f.])
For 24/21 6/5, I use U (again, making the 5pt-covering assumption). U has a double-sized family by the way: [U, V, u, v, U, etc.] If I might be dealing with a strict interpreter, I'd use the third member of the family "u" because strictly speaking U is 24/20* and V is 24/21 24/23. That is, "u" is safe for 24/21 6/5 whether using assumption or not, but U is more aesthetic and generally used because most readers will make reasonable assumptions. (Generally speaking, a lot depends on just how obvious the assumed part of a move is.)
By the same token, I would use V (second member of the U family) for 24/23 24/22 6/5 under most circumstances, but if my reader is a by-the-book sort of fellow, I would use the fourth member "v" (the first three having been allocated as discussed in the previous paragraph).
"Y" stands for a type of Yoga split in which the body forms an upside-down Y. (The arms point to the two far-side parts of the move, and the split legs point to the inner and outer board parts of the move.) Applying the extra point convention and 6pt convention and going down the hierarchy, Y = 24/23(2) 8/7 6/5, y = 24/23(2) 11/10 6/5, Y = 24/22 8/7 6/5, and y = 24/22 11/10 6/5. More often than not (though in this specific case not), conventions help the best plays rise to the top of the hierarchy.
Because Y describes the entire play, there is no need for assumption, and it also explains why I consider B (Both up and to/within outer board) to be a reasonable option for 24/23 11/9 6/5 (a play that has no M- or Y-type hero to fully, non-assumptively, describe it). I've now fulfilled the promise I made in the third paragraph under the second diagram.
For 8/7(3) 6/5, I use "7." David's "L" (Lift) is reasonable if your audience is strong, because 8/7(2) can be an assumed part of the play. But if you're dealing with a weaker audience or if you just want to guard against the eye being drawn to the 11pt blot which can be lifted (11/8 6/5), "7" seems better because it is also suggestive of overmaking the 7pt -- a feasible application for a numeral. (Granted, an astute interpreter would probably realize that a savvy nactator would use "8" rather than "L" for 11/8 6/5.)
I'll mention two final plays: E (Each inner board) exactly describes 24/23(2) 6/5(2), and e (each) exactly describes 24/22 6/5(2).
That's a lot of plays for 21$-21$-11 covered in this post: seventeen by my count. I expect you are completely bewildered at this moment. But the point isn't to be perfect. Rather, just learn a bit at a time, and refer back to the tutorial or one of these posts when you are ready to take on more. I purposely listed far more plays than you would ever need for the actual position because they just might arise as reasonable candidates in other complex doublet situations, and not necessarily with double 1s.
Also, remember to put the whole situation into perspective. Complex doublets with 11 and 22 (and to a lesser extent 33) are by far the hardest part of Nactation, they arise on only a small minority of turns, and when they do the best plays are often described by characters that are exact or if not one can lean on highly reasonable assumption.
For now, when you're faced with a small complex doublet, just try to find an appropriate character for the situation, use the capital letter (unless you happen to have already learned otherwise for a situation) and in many cases you'll luck into it. At the least, you'll reduce the probability of misinterpretation, and then you can review the tutorial or find/search for "Nact..." posts here or post a question to further refine your usage.
Nack