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. 

Expert Backgammon Player and TeacherChris Bray Photo

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.
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This position was meant to be easy, but it didn’t turn out that way.

It should be obvious that 18/10 is not the right idea. Blue won’t be favourite to get a shot next turn and he is way behind

This position came up in a teaching session. After a group discussion 8/3 was chosen as the move to be played.

Hitting on the 10-pt was correctly deemed to be too loose while makes the

Blue’s army is separated in two with no lines of communication. The race is even so playing a 3-4 back game is not a viable option.

Blue’s checkers are not well placed for a blitz (22/16,

The key learning point from this position is that Blue cannot play passively. White is threatening to escape the last rear checker and must be stopped from doing so. 24/16 is not only

There are only two sensible choices here, 24/13 or 20/9.

The difference between the two is not huge but much  more important is to understand the reasoning.

20/9 is the

When analysing a match play cube decision, one should always start with the decision for money and then adjust for the match score.

In this position Blue is ahead in the race. The static

This position causes a mental blind spot for most players. They just don’t consider the best play as a candidate move.

They mainly hit the White checker on Blue’s 4-pt by moving 6/4*

Blue has the advantage in race, position and threat and yet this position is not a double for Blue and White has a trivial take if doubled. Why is that?

The answer is that none of Blue’s