Author: Orad Reshef
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“Pay Now” is overrated
A common predicament arises in many backgammon positions called the “Pay Now vs. Pay Later” dilemma. It comes up most frequently in holding games. The idea is this: your opponent is hanging back waiting for a shot, and you are waiting for the opportune moment to clear your last point and secure victory. Suddenly, the…
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Three midpoint tips
We continue our journey around the board with our next stop at the 13-pt, also called the midpoint. By now, you should know exactly what to do with most of the 5 checkers that start on that point — they need to become the builders we were referring to in our last article. Still, there…
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You’ll need builders
Having sufficiently hammered home the importance of a strong board and of building a strong prime, it is finally time to discuss how to obtain them. The best play might be obvious if you roll a point-making number like 31 or 42, but otherwise, there is no perfectly safe way to do it. How do…
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PR/ER
When analyzing a match, the bots will calculate and display a value called “PR” or “ER”. These acronyms are interchangeable, standing for either Performance Rate or Error Rate. A PR of 0 means you played “perfectly” as assessed by the bot, both in checker play and cube decisions. Grandmasters play with an average PR of…
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Opening replies
In our course, we have a lesson where we take a beat to learn the Opening rolls. There are only like 15 to memorize, so it’s pretty easy. That’s not at all the case for the second roll, where you can find over 700 reasonable decisions. What are those opening replies? They could be found…
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Don’t pass this up: part 2
We continue our list of automatic plays with a few more rules of thumb, this time pertaining to primes. Don’t pass up a 6-prime This one should hopefully feel obvious — if you are given the opportunity to complete a 6-prime, you must seize it. This structure is so powerful that it puts a stranglehold…