2021 - Position 92

XGID=-DBCabD---aB-------cbbb-b-:0:0:1:21:9:2:0:11:10

Match Play. Red leads 9-2 to 11. How should Red play 21?

White is playing for an undoubled gammon, but things have not gone quite to plan and he now faces a difficult decision.

6/4*/3 doesn’t really solve Red’s problems. The ace should be played 11/10*. The question is whether Red should then play 6/4*, leaving three blots or simply 11/9, leaving only two blots.

In a money game with White owning the cube, 6/4* would be clear because of the much higher gammon percentage. At this lop-sided score it turns out that 11/10*, 11/9 is just fractionally better than 11/10*, 6/4* but the latter play is not an error.