Category: Positions

Here, black has just rolled a 63 and left a double shot with 20 hitting numbers.  Score is 2 away for black, and 4 away for white, with white on roll.  Would you double this?  If doubled, should black take?  Comment your thoughts below!

ANSWER

Double/Take

Here is an interesting checker play problem from the championship undefeated finals at the U.S. Open between Neil Kazaross and Roberto Litzenberger.   Score is 16 white, 10 black /19.  What is your priority here?  Would you hit loose on your 2 point?

 

ANSWER

Hitting on the two point simply doesn’t accomplish very much.  White is up 6 pips after the roll, so the race is already very close, and getting hit back would hurt us greatly in the race.  Stepping out to the 17 point gives black 23 hitting numbers, but 13 of those force him to break his midpoint, which is a very important point to help him escape his back three checkers.  Additionally, most of black’s hitting numbers leave return shots from the bar.

Tonight we are going to look at a cube from the undefeated finals of the California State Championships. In this, game 2, we see Akiko with a four point board and forward anchor vs Steve’s one point board and ace point anchor. Video below (starts @ 26:35).

What do you think, would you double? If doubled, would you take? Comment below with your thoughts!

	is Steve Sax score: 1 pip: 150 11 point match pip: 121 score: 0 is Akiko Yazawa
XGID=-bBBB-C—A-dC—bBd-b-a–:0:0:1:00:0:1:0:11:10
on roll, cube action?

 

eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10

 

Answer: Double/Pass

Your opponent has played 43 up, do you know when you are supposed to hit twice? Are there any rolls that don’t hit at all? Have you ever seen an opening 43 played this way?

Answer: Check out the dice distribution below.