FIBS Board backgammon forum

This is a hard one.  I'm at sea figuring out what our priorities are.

Our 5-1 backgame structure really doesn't lend itself to an effective backgame, so leaving blots with the aim of recirculating and increasing our timing doesn't seem like the right strategy.  OTOH, holding two points in his homeboard means we don't have to be too worried about being hit.  We don't necessarily want to be hit, but being hit isn't bad.  So I'm going to reject the "leave lots of blots" options.

I'd like to keep the spare on the 20 point so we can hit a shot while continuing to hold the point.  Alternatively, we could say the same thing about the midpoint to argue for the prosaic 20/13.

Hitting the blot on the 4 is a double edged sword - it hurts our timing, but the checker is poised to escape and sending it back might allow us to trap it deep in our homeboard making his leading checkers crunch, which helps our timing.  But, as I said above, increasing our timing might not be our best strategy.

So, what to do?  My initial instinct is to play the simple 20/13, and I can't come up with a compelling reason why another move is clearly better, so I guess I'll stick with it. 20/13

What I see here is that we have to hit in order to have any chance of winning, we have his 5 pt secured, so I consider that an easy out with a spare having his 1 pt secured, so my move would be 20/15 6/4.

Although I would dearly love to hit right now, it seems like folly to me, we have almost no chance of him dancing, and run  a high risk of another checker back or getting him closer to that small prime - making it easier for him to get out.  Another checker back for us now would be bad I think, we have enough to make good use of if we get a chance, so I want to run that spare to a safe place to be able to use it for good.  20/13 for me.

Quote from: diane on January 22, 2010, 08:08:00 PM
Although I would dearly love to hit right now, it seems like folly to me, we have almost no chance of him dancing, and run  a high risk of another checker back or getting him closer to that small prime - making it easier for him to get out.  Another checker back for us now would be bad I think, we have enough to make good use of if we get a chance, so I want to run that spare to a safe place to be able to use it for good.  20/13 for me.

I'd also like to hit, and if there were anything reasonable to do with the 5 I probably would. But  there's not...

As far as him getting " closer to that small prime", observe that he can only do that from the bar with a 5 and  a 5 allows him to jump it now.  But with a spare on the midpoint, jumping is risky unless he can land on his midpoint or pass ours.  The more I think about it, the better the midpoint spare looks.