2022 - Position 137

XGID=-a-bDDC-B---bB----abbbc---:1:-1:1:33:0:2:0:7:10

Match Play. Red trails 0-2 to 7. How should Red play 33?

Interestingly 5/2(2), 4/1(2)* wins 4% more gammons but loses 5% more games than 13/10(2), 4/1(2)*. The extra gammons are clearly offset by the difficulty Red has in clearing his mid-point and 8-pt safely when White enters quickly. An interesting result.

This makes 5/2(2), 4/1(2)* a very bad error but not quite a blunder. I found this position highly instructive. Of course, the strength of White’s board is very important in the decision making. If you play around with the strength of White’s board but keep everything else the same, you get some interesting results. Try it for yourselves.