Bray's Learning Curve

Asset versus Race

Picture of Chris Bray
Chris Bray
Unlimited Games. How should Red play 32?
eXtreme Gammon ID: I made the second best. Someone, talk to me.

Answer and Commentary

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Bray’s Learning Curve — A Great Member Benefit

Bray’s Learning Curve is a USBGF online series by author Chris Bray. Each week Chris lends his sharp insight and easy to understand analysis to help you improve your game.

Visit the USBGF Facebook page every Monday to challenge yourself with an interesting backgammon position and join in the lively discussion.  Return to usbgf.org on Tuesday to view the answer with commentary.

More Bray's Learning Curve

Backgammon board in play with red and white checkers on triangular points, bars at sides, and two red dice visible near the bottom right.

Washing Day

I see this misplayed so often I thought it was time to point readers in the right direction.

This position occurs after Red 53: 8/3, 6/3, White 62: 24/18, 13/11

With double twos the only

Overhead view of a backgammon board in progress, with orange and white checkers distributed across the board, a cluster of white checkers near the top-right and a stack of red checkers in the bottom-right area; dice showing 64 and 29 on the sides.

Beware the empty 4-pt

It might seem odd to have a simple bear-off as an expert problem but most experts and nearly everybody else gets this wrong.

By any formula, including the Thorpe adjusted Ward Count