My awesome position:
mGfDIUDbZgABJw:QQmqAEAAEAAE
The position is interesting: an opponent’s chequer on the bar and a strong board, but four of our men back.
How do you play this 42, and why?
Happy Christmas everyone!
2 Likes
The obvious move is making the 20pt, but that looks too bunched up to me. 4 checkers tied up too close together. The opponent is on the bar, so we can play bigger. 22/18 15/13 is much more fluid. Compared to making the 20pt, every point on the board is in direct contact with our checkers. In Olsenese, we have maximized our contact sone (sic). And are flexible for escaping. Opponent dances, we pick up another checker, and 20 rolls later, we're home. And watch out for disaster numbers like 33 when making a play like 24/20 22/20!
Happy Christmas to thee.
2 Likes
While we wait for more comments, let me tell you my reasoning.
Opponent is on the bar and most likely will stay on the bar for a while, so it is time to do something productive with our roll, something that might take multiple moves.
24/20 22/20 looks alluring, but why not 24/20 15/13? This way we slot for a better anchor and we might pick up another chequer next turn.
GNUbg did not like it.
Spoilers ahead!
GNUbg 4-ply analysis
Each move is a blunder bar… 22/20 22/18.
1. Cubeful 4-ply 22/20 22/18 Eq.: +1.061
0.612 0.419 0.007 - 0.388 0.114 0.008
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
2. Cubeful 4-ply 22/20 15/11 Eq.: +0.955 (-0.105)
0.581 0.396 0.006 - 0.419 0.115 0.007
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
3. Cubeful 4-ply 22/18 15/13 Eq.: +0.909 (-0.152)
0.576 0.379 0.006 - 0.424 0.118 0.007
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
4. Cubeful 4-ply 24/20 22/20 Eq.: +0.870 (-0.191)
0.570 0.365 0.006 - 0.430 0.103 0.005
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
5. Cubeful 4-ply 24/20 15/13 Eq.: +0.656 (-0.405)
0.508 0.320 0.004 - 0.492 0.127 0.006
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
6. Cubeful 4-ply 24/18 Eq.: +0.648 (-0.413)
0.508 0.316 0.005 - 0.492 0.130 0.006
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
7. Cubeful 4-ply 15/9 Eq.: +0.528 (-0.533)
0.476 0.288 0.004 - 0.524 0.141 0.006
4-ply cubeful prune [4ply]
This is my move too. Seems like it would give us better sixes and threes next roll too. We really don't want to get stuck back there, and it always seems to take longer than you'd think to get past a gapped prime and get around the board. One set of big, bad doubles can ruin everything.
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Well, we found that mobility/flexibility is important, but the bots say it's so important that we should give up the anchor! I see now that we'll have a good chance to make the 20pt or 18pt anchors next, and then we'll have totally snuffed out their counterpriming chances.
1 Like