As you can see from the rollouts below making the 3-pt wins more gammons than the safe 9/5, 7/4.
The key is in the score. At this score a gammon gives Red the match with perfect efficiency
World Championship 2009
XGID=a-BBBBB—-acA-B-c-bc-bB–:1:-1:1:51:10:12:0:15:1011:10
eXtreme Gammon ID: XGID=a-BBBBB----acA-B-c-bc-bB--:1:-1:1:51:10:12:0:15:1011:10
Answer and Commentary
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
For once, a nice and easy problem in the beginner’s section which most people got right.
The correct move is 13/9(2), blocking sixes from Red’s 3-pt. Kent Goulding calls this “nine