Bray's Learning Curve

Flawed Strategy

Picture of Chris Bray
Chris Bray
Match Play. Red trails 2-3 to 7. How should Red play 32?
Backgammon board mid-game with red and white checkers on the points, two dice near the bottom showing the roll, and numbers along the edges indicating positions.
eXtreme Gammon ID: XGID=-a---BCBC-A-cB----bebb-AA-:0:0:1:32:2:3:0:7:10

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 with white and red checkers on triangular points; two dice show 2 and 3 nearby.

Not so easy

Should Red give up one of his anchors? If so, how?

A move like 12/6, 8/3 is clearly wrong. Red should not cede the outer boards to White. Running one checker with 20/9, or 21/10 is wrong

Backgammon board in mid-game with red and white checkers on multiple points and two dice visible.

Early Game Skirmish

This position occurs after Red 54: 24/20, 13/8 White 21: 13/11, 6/5* and I played it incorrectly for years believing that bar/23, 6/5 gave White a good four which she didn’t have anywhere