2021 - Position 90

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Match Play. Red leads 12-6 (post-Crawford). How should Red play 55?

If Red gives up the golden-point anchor he loses far more gammons than if he holds on to it. This is because the remaining rear checker quite often gets primed. Losing a gammon at this score is obviously not good.

Red does better to hold the anchor and use it to escape the checker on White’s ace-point. This leads us to the conclusion that 13/3(2) is the correct play. If White’s rear checker does not escape, then Red can attack it next time.

As is often the case, giving up an anchor is wrong!