| 1. | Black | (4 3) | 24/20 13/10 |
|
| White | (6 1) | 13/7 8/7 | |
|
| 2. | Black | (6 3) | 13/7 10/7 |
|
| Move 2 White |
|
|
| Pip: 160 | ||
| Pip: 151 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | M | 24/20 24/21 | -0.214 | |
| * | 2 | 3 | 24/21 13/9 | -0.274 (-0.061) |
| 3 | 3 | 24/20 6/3 | -0.328 (-0.115) | |
| Checker play |
|
100 years ago, the 43 and 32 opening moves were played two up. Indeed, this is the best way for the rear checkers to communicate with the rest of the army and to shoot at the enemy territory, but it does nothing to improve the front where 13 of the white army are. The initial position has changed with two bar points and a black major split. White sees the beautiful duplication of fours needed by black to cover the golden anchor to hit in the outfield or to make a point on the white silver anchor slot and dares to leave a voluntary shot. But! Duplication is not an end in backgammon. It is only a means. Duplication is a mere counting tool. White is not forced to give a shot in his territory, Move 24/21 first and then look for the remaining 4 to play. 24/20 is best, because it slots the golden anchor and is non-committal. Of course, this is kind of choosing the least of evils. This passive play is not appealing, and thus difficult to find. |
| 3. | Black | (4 1) | 24/23 20/16* |
|
| White | (3 2) | bar/23 24/21 | |
|
| Move 4 Black |
|
|
| Pip: 164 | ||
| Pip: 146 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 7/3(2) 6/2*(2) | 0.398 | |
| * | 2 | 3 | 13/9(2) 6/2*(2) | 0.366 (-0.032) |
| 3 | 3 | 13/5(2) | 0.272 (-0.126) | |
| Checker play |
|
Black must point on the deuce and decide between making the 3 point behind the anchor or blocking with 13/9(2) - the actual move. Black underestimates the connection motives here (Robertie). Black will have many problems to solve after the latter move. He will need to safety the rear checkers and then to extricate them one by one. He will need to bear in safely and that will be difficult with a big 345 gap and an enemy anchor. It is difficult to prime a high anchor. Black would better make a new point while white is on the bar. That would have increased the chances of a white dance two-fold. This is a way to protect the 16 blot too and keep a connected position. (The proverbial midpoint) |
| White | (5 1) | bar/20 13/12* | |
|
| 5. | Black | (5 3) | bar/20 16/13* |
|
| Move 5 White |
|
|
| Pip: 173 | ||
| Pip: 134 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | bar/21 20/14 | -0.442 | |
| * | 2 | 3 | bar/15 | -0.475 (-0.033) |
| 3 | 1 | bar/21 13/7 | -0.707 (-0.265) | |
| Checker play |
|
Paul The Great again uses the duplication theme (3s to hit, to make the golden point on his head , and to cover the slot on black's own golden point). White is wrong again. Look at the resultng positions after breaking the midpoint to make black 9 or after making the 3 point and leaving the midpoint with a spare! Probably Paul did not consider the latter option. That's how harmful the duplication mind twist is. |
| 6. | Black | (4 1) | 9/5* 6/5 |
|
| White | (5 1) | bar/24 21/16* | |
|
| 7. | Black | (6 6) | Can't move |
|
| Move 7 White |
|
|
| Pip: 162 | ||
| Pip: 145 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 21/16 6/5* | 0.209 | |
| 2 | 3 | 15/10 6/5* | 0.139 (-0.070) | |
| * | 3 | 3 | 21/16 13/12* | 0.117 (-0.092) |
| Checker play |
|
Before black's grand super anti-joker (66) all white's prayers were for anchor, safety, perhaps a lucky hit or two, but he did not dream of being the favorite soon. Now white is the favorite and the problem is whether to play safe (hit and destroy black outfield presense) or to go in for something and hit-and-slot the golden point. Black has a better home and white naturally is afraid to be hit back with a 5, but if left alone, black can anchor on the 5 or 2 point(good shots); or (medium) enter both checkers on the 134 point s; probably 75% of the time. Only the 61 63 and 64 are anti-jokers and the game is not over still. If white hit-and-slots on the 5 point, the same 61 63 and 64 would be even worse anti-jokers for black. In the 80's Magrial and the others would not hesitate to hit-and-slot with two (enemy) e-men on the bar, but nowadays ... Bots' wisdom (what we learned from machines) has blinded the prophets too:( The mechanical talliman (Snowie 3ply evaluation) tallies a 9% difference in favor of 21/16 6/5* to the actual 21/16 13/12*. How easy to say with a Snowie at hand and looking for days at this position. What about a rollout? Wow! The 7 move truncated rollout says the difference between the two candidates is not so big, but still almost a blunder: rollout -0.051, evaluation:-0.092. (da-mag003a, da-mag003b) |
| 8. | Black | (6 3) | bar/22 |
|
| White | (4 3) | 13/9 12/9 | |
|
| 9. | Black | (6 3) | bar/22 20/14 |
|
| White | (2 2) | 15/11* 6/4(2) | |
|
| 10. | Black | (3 1) | bar/24 23/20 |
|
|
|
||
| Pip: 141 | ||
| Pip: 152 | ||
| White | Double | |
|
| 11. | Black | Take |
|
| Cube action equity | Wrong take | ||
| 3-Ply | Money equity: | 0.627 | |
| 0.8% 21.9% 73.7% 26.3% 7.1% 0.2% | |||
| 1. | Double, pass | 1.000 | |
| 2. | No double | 0.854 | (-0.146) |
| 3. | Double, take | 1.153 | (+0.153) |
| Proper cube action: Double, pass | |||
| Cube action |
|
REPETEZ Fr. (r p t) - race position threat. That's what Joe Sylvester taught the French on a seminar in the early 1990s. White is ahead, has a near 6 prime and has many threats to complete it. If one party has advantage in all three departments, he has a good double and probably the other party should pass. Black is too ambitious to take this cube. His Bulgarian anchor (Kleinmann) is not enough of an asset where his army is cut in two. |
| Move 11 White |
|
|
| Pip: 141 | ||
| Pip: 152 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 11/5* 7/5 | 0.517 | |
| 2 | 3 | 24/22 11/5* | 0.495 (-0.023) | |
| * | 3 | 3 | 24/16 | 0.459 (-0.058) |
| Checker play |
|
First question here: were there any side bets? Second question: was this a live broadcast ? They probably played on a very large board and Paul had his blot on the 11 point out of vision. Of course, making the golden point is best. Otherwise, if black does not hit the blot, he can cover the golden anchor and it will be a very small advantage to white. |
| 12. | Black | (2 1) | 22/20 8/7 |
|
| White | (6 4) | 16/10 11/7 | |
|
| 13. | Black | (2 1) | 22/20 7/6 |
|
| Move 13 White |
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|
| Pip: 123 | ||
| Pip: 146 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 10/6 7/4 | 0.450 | |
| 2 | 3 | 16/13 10/6 | 0.436 (-0.014) | |
| * | 5 | 3 | 7/3 6/3 | 0.300 (-0.150) |
| Checker play |
|
White is very much blot-happy this game. Besides, he leaves the tasty blot to a surplus hitter on the golden anchor. White needn't do anything heroic here. Points will come. White does not need a prime to win too. |
| 14. | Black | (3 1) | 8/4 |
|
| White | (2 1) | 10/7 | |
|
| Move 15 Black |
|
|
| Pip: 113 | ||
| Pip: 142 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 20/14 8/3 | -0.544 | |
| * | 2 | 3 | 7/1 6/1 | -0.576 (-0.032) |
| 3 | 3 | 8/3 7/1 | -0.591 (-0.047) | |
| Checker play |
|
This is resignation. 5s and 6s don't grow on trees. Jumping to the 14 point and slotting the 3 is great when it works. Black will no more be afraid to crunch and he will probably complete his board. When not hit, this checker will guard the rear white checkers and maybe cause the breaking of white's blokade. |
| White | (3 1) | 16/13 7/6 | |
|
| Move 16 Black |
|
|
| Pip: 109 | ||
| Pip: 131 | ||
| # | Ply | Move | Equity | |
| 1 | 3 | 20/14 7/4 | -0.590 | |
| * | 2 | 3 | 20/11 | -0.636 (-0.047) |
| 3 | 3 | 8/2 7/4 | -0.642 (-0.053) | |
| Checker play |
|
If black plays 20/14 7/4, he will make a difficult and important point and will put pressure on the 2 blots. How do you figure this out on the board? I am not sure. Granted checkers must work hard when only one or two of them are spare to move. Black is way behind in the race and he needs a shot to win. He can also lose a gammon if he is forced to break the golden anchor before the back checker is extricated. The shot difference between the actual and the mest move is quite big (22-vs 12), but having an additional point and being hit may be beneficial in two ways - black may anchor on the ace point or his delayed entry may save him from crunching his board. Any one with an idea how to figure this out? |
| White | (3 1) | 16/12 | |
|
| 17. | Black | (4 3) | 24/20 7/4 |
|
| White | (6 5) | 13/8 12/6 | |
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| 18. | Black | (5 2) | 20/15 8/6 |
|
| White | (1 1) | 9/7(2) | |
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| 19. | Black | (6 1) | 15/14 11/5 |
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| White | (3 1) | 7/3 | |
|
| 20. | Black | (5 1) | 14/8 |
|
| White | (6 2) | 7/1 3/1 | |
|
| 21. | Black | (6 3) | 8/2 6/3 |
|
| White | (5 1) | 8/2 | |
|
| 22. | Black | (5 3) | 20/12 |
|
| White | (4 1) | 6/2 6/5* | |
|
| 23. | Black | (5 3) | bar/20* 12/9 |
|
| White | (4 2) | Can't move | |
|
|
|
||
| Pip: 87 | ||
| Pip: 75 | ||
| Cube action equity | Missed double | ||
| 3-Ply | Money equity: | 0.780 | |
| 0.2% 8.5% 85.3% 14.7% 1.3% 0.0% | |||
| 1. | Redouble, pass | 1.000 | |
| 2. | No redouble | 0.891 | (-0.109) |
| 3. | Redouble, take | 1.525 | (+0.525) |
| Proper cube action: Redouble, pass | |||
| Cube action |
|
If black plays on for a gammon here, he is wrong. |
| 24. | Black | (4 4) | 20/4 |
|
| White | (6 3) | bar/22*/16* | |
|
| 25. | Black | (5 1) | bar/20 |
|
| White | (5 1) | 16/10 | |
|
| 26. | Black | (5 2) | bar/20 5/3 |
|
| White | (3 1) | 10/6 | |
|
| 27. | Black | (6 1) | 20/14 4/3 |
|
| White | (6 2) | 8/2 8/6 | |
|
| 28. | Black | (6 4) | 20/10 |
|
| White | (6 5) | 7/1 7/2 | |
|
| 29. | Black | (6 1) | 14/7 |
|
| White | (4 4) | 6/2(2) 4/off(2) | |
|
| 30. | Black | (3 3) | 10/7 7/4(2) 3/off |
|
| White | (5 4) | 6/1 6/2 | |
|
| 31. | Black | (6 4) | 6/off 4/off |
|
| White | (6 3) | 3/off(2) | |
|
| 32. | Black | (2 2) | 4/2 2/off(3) |
|
| White | (3 2) | 2/off(2) | |
|
| 33. | Black | (6 6) | 6/off 5/off(2) 4/off |
|
| White | (5 5) | 2/off(4) | |
|
|
|
||
| Pip: 6 | ||
| Pip: 11 | ||
| 34. | Black | Double |
|
| White | Pass | |
|
| Cube action equity | |||
| Database | Money equity: | 0.542 | |
| 0.0% 0.0% 77.1% 22.9% 0.0% 0.0% | |||
| 1. | Redouble, take | 0.982 | |
| 2. | No redouble | 0.759 | (-0.223) |
| 3. | Redouble, pass | 1.000 | (+0.018) |
| Proper cube action: Redouble, take | |||
| DA wins 2 points. |
