2023 - Position 96

XGID=aA-CBBB----A-AaA-bbbbBbc--:1:1:1:00:4:4:0:11:10

Match Play. 4-4 to 11. Should Blue redouble? If redoubled, should White take?

On first sight XG makes this a take – clearly blue should redouble – but on rollout it becomes a tiny pass.

However, Blue has a lot of work to do and plenty of opportunities to go wrong so from a practical perspective this will be a take against all but the best players.

If you move the spare checker on White’s 2-pt to his 5-pt, making it an active piece, then the take becomes trivial. As Robertie says, “Everything Matters”.

The initial position is also an easy take for money. It is only the match score and the potential loss of eight points and the match with a gammon on a four-cube that makes it a tiny pass.