There are a number of bear-off positions that everybody should know because they recur frequently and learning them is a lot quicker than trying to work things out from first principles
Bray's Learning Curve
Each week, author Chris Bray lends his sharp insight and easy-to-understand analysis to help you improve your game.
Chris is the author of multiple backgammon books, including Backgammon for Dummies, and is the backgammon columnist for The Times of London.
A New Puzzle Every Week
Every Monday Chris posts an interesting backgammon position on our Facebook page. We encourage you to join in the lively discussion and return here to our website on Tuesdays to read his extended analysis.
Bray’s Learning Curve in-depth analysis is one of the great benefits of a USBGF membership.
Explore by topic:
Explore all (in date order):
As this is a quiz you can probably guess that 9/4*, 8/4 won’t be the answer!
This is a difficult problem, as are most containment positions. You must look at the immediate problem but
Over the board bar/21, 7/5 was played. All very neat and tidy but not meeting the demands of the position. Red is way behind in the race and bar/21, 7/5 gives White a very easy ride.
Therefore,
This is a question of balancing leaving shots versus the opportunity to get a shot as White leave the mid-point.
18/13 minimises shots but gives White no bad numbers as all ones hit and
The first question is, does Red need to split his rear checkers?
Red is behind in the race and White has eleven checkers in the attack zone. White also has a blitzing structure.
Those
This is really an exercise in logic. While the blitzing play 5/4(2)*, 3/2(2)* is superficially attractive that move does not solve Red’s main problem.
That problem is the Red checker
Red can play a priming or blitzing game. Meanwhile White has a blitzing structure and so any move that splits Red’s back checkers is likely to be wrong and in fact any play that moves a
This is basically a lesson in cube efficiency in match play.
The position is not that volatile and with White having an anchor on Red’s bar-point the game has some way to go. In unlimited