- March 18, 2019
After the second roll there are about 600 positions. When it gets to third roll there are many thousands so you cannot learn them off by heart, instead you have to learn the appropriate
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.
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.
After the second roll there are about 600 positions. When it gets to third roll there are many thousands so you cannot learn them off by heart, instead you have to learn the appropriate
What could be easier than the opening roll?
This is a lesson in match-play thinking. Clearly this is a huge pass for money but the match score scenario is very different.
The key point in this position, which may not be immediately obvious, is the gammon percentage won by Red after each play
Without an extensive knowledge of reference positions this is a difficult problem. If you have seen something like this before it makes life a lot easier!
This type of position is fairly common so it is best to know how to deal with it.
For money this would be a very premature redouble but at this match score the cube is valueless to White.
This is not a very difficult problem but Red went astray over the board by playing 24/21, 8/4, which is far too big a play.