A double question

[Simborg]

In the position below, it is a match to 9, and the score is 0-0. Black is ?blitzing? white and has gotten very lucky?after hitting two checkers, white has danced with both checkers and is stuck on the bar. The question is, what is the proper cube action now with black on roll?

a) black should double and white should take
b) black should double and white should drop
c) black should not double because he is ?too good? and wins too many gammons


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The answer is B, double/drop. The answer is almost C as t is almost too good to double, as black does win a lot of gammons, but there are several reasons why black should double.

First, and to me, the most important reason, is that if you double, you might just get lucky and have an opponent who will take. It happened to me, as this situation came up in a match of mine at my local club in Chicago just last week (November 2006) and my opponent took the cube, I won a gammon, getting 4 points, and that gave me a nice lead in the match. Another reason to double is that at this score, 0-0 to 9, it is not worth risking the 1 point you will probably win when he correctly drops to go for a gammon. Being ahead 2-0 as opposed to 1-0 is just not that much of a difference to risk losing the game.

Of course, when black doubles, white should drop because he simply doesn?t have enough winning chances and he does get gammoned far too often.



Questions or comments: Feel free to email Phil at psimborg@sbcglobal.net