| |
BGonline.org Forums
BQ: Stay back or run?
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: BQ: Stay back or run? (leobueno)
Date: Monday, 2 May 2011, at 10:33 p.m.
In case you didn't understand Stick's comment about the score, the point is that not only do you not care whether you lose a gammon, you (almost) don't care about winning a gammon either. If you win a single, your opponent will then have a "free drop" in post-Crawford play. If you win a gammon, you take away your opponent's free drop, but that's worth only a tiny amount.
Anyway, 8/6 8/3 is the natural play here, and I'm guessing that's what you played. The main problem I see with it is that your 8pt is a very valuable blocking point, preventing White's back checker from leaping out with 66 65 64 62 33. Therefore it's worth looking at plays such as 18/11 or 18/13 3/1 or 18/16 18/13. (I'd be surprised if breaking the back anchor is correct since you'll need it to survive getting hit.) Not only does such a play hold your prime, it also provides some extra outfield coverage if White leaps out. It does of course leave a lot of shots and will certainly lose more gammons, but you don't care about gammons here. The main problem I see with getting hit is that you may give your opponent a chance to gain time to get his checkers around while you're on the bar.
Another consideration here is that your position is rather inflexible. You may be forced to leave a shot by running off an anchor next time anyway. By then your opponent may have a stronger board. Thus there's an element of paying now versus paying later here.
Given that you're posting this as a problem, I'm guessing that 18/11 is the bot play. Over the board, though, I would probably play 8/6 8/3. You're right that this is an interesting problem even for experienced players.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.