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BGonline.org Forums
Kamikaze plays...
Posted By: Casper van der Tak In Response To: Kamikaze plays... (christian munk-christensen)
Date: Saturday, 13 November 2010, at 8:18 a.m.
I'd play 9/7 6/3, building a kind of 5 prime, instead of the all-out kamikaze play of 6/3 4/2*. 9/7 6/3 retains more ways to win, going forward, by priming, holding game, backgame, whereas the kamikaze play only leaves the backgame possibility open. But it is not clear cut.
To formulate some criteria that make a kamikaze play more likely to be correct:
- The score should make gammon losses and to a lesser extent backgammon losses meaningless or close to meaningless. Obvious and satisfied here, but this may be the most important point.
- You need to be committed to a backgame or a deep anchor game. Only so-so here, I see other winning possibilities as well.
- Timing should be suspect. That is very clearly the case here (even so much so that I think there are other winning chances you'd like to retain); in any case, you don't make kamikaze plays if you already have good timing.
- You need to have more checkers recycled to get a stronger defensive position. That may be the case here, the 34 backgame is quite far advanced, in some variations you'd like to establish a deeper point and then give up the 21 anchor. Sometimes you should make the kamikaze play even to have the chance to make the second anchor.
- Opponent should be forced to hit. That is OK here; you put opponent on the bar (with little choice how to come in), and also behind a blot-prime. In other cases, a kamikaze play may not involve putting an opponent on the bar but only putting him/her behind a blot-prime; in such a case, what is needed is lack of flexibility up front so that the back checkers must move and hopefully hit in the process.
- Placement of the blots. You don't like to leave the blots in out of place locations, harming long term prospects. Here the places where you'd leave the blots are very good after the kamikaze play; even if only the blot on the 4 is hit, your front position is not too compromised. (This is a lengthy way of saying that you should not leave a blot on the ace when making a kamikaze play).
- Impact on timing. For a kamikaze play to be right, it needs to gain timing. So ideally you make a kamikaze play if your opponents priming position is not very strong (so that you can more easily hop over it after your blots are hit) and difficult to extend (here you advanced anchor helps protecting against that, but the prime is obviously already strong). It also helps if you opponent has more home points made, because that increases the chances that you'd lose time dancing.
- Tactical considerations. Sometimes a kamikaze play runs the danger that your opp can hit all and clear all trouble spots before you come from the bar and rebuild your offensive. In that case, you may have all the timing in the world, but no blots to hit, and no offense to hold any hit blots.
I guess that is it for me.
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