Bray's Learning Curve

Opening Theory

Picture of Chris Bray
Chris Bray
Unlimited Games. How should Red play 43?
eXtreme Gammon ID: XGID=-aaB--D-B---cE-a-d-e----B-:0:0:1:43:0:0:3:0:10

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

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

Backgammon board in play: orange and white points, red checkers clustered on the right side and white checkers on the left, with two red dice visible near the bottom-right.

Take Care

Making the 4-pt with 7/4*, 6/4 looks obvious so why not do that?

Firstly, if you are going to have an open point in your structure when bearing in, it should be as high as possible. Low empty