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Match Play. Red trails 7-8 (Crawford). How should Red play 21?
This one is deceptive, and most students get it wrong. Any play that doesn’t hit on the 12-pt is a triple blunder and clearly 14/13, 14/12* is best although 14/12*, 2/1 is not far behind.
Hitting wins more games and vastly increases Red’s gammon (and match) winning chances. The blot on Red’s ace-point is largely an illusion. White will have four checkers trapped behind a four-point prime and will need to roll incredibly well to escape them all.
Even if the scores were reversed hitting would still be correct.
A highly instructive position.
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