Bray's Learning Curve

Pick a Game Plan

Picture of Chris Bray
Chris Bray
Match Play. Double Match Point. How should Red play 32?
eXtreme Gammon ID: XGID=-a-bBbD-BB--bB--Ac-e-B----:1:-1:1:32:3:4:0:5:10

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

Top-down view of a backgammon board with orange/beige triangles, showing red and white checkers on various points, red checkers stacked on the left bar, and dice near the bottom-right.

Back Game Theory

White has a 1-4 back game that could become a simple 4-pt holding game. Red needs to get his checkers working for a living and the worst stack is the one on his 6-pt. It is very clear to play

Overhead view of a backgammon board with red and white checkers on the points, some on the bar, and edge scores showing 2/9 and 0/9.

Cube Power

At first sight this position looks innocuous, and few would give much though to redoubling. Red still has a. lot of work to do and White has a five-point home board. Even so the redouble