2024 - Position 117

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Match Play. Red leads 5-3 to 9. How should Red play 55?

Is Red blitzing or priming? The answer, very clearly, is priming. 20/15, 11/1*, 6/1 turns out to be worse than a quadruple blunder.

There is virtually nothing to choose between 20/15(2), 20/10 and 20/10, 8/3(2). Those two moves allow the Red checkers to work together whereas the blitzing play leaves Red’s checkers badly disconnected. The key here is to have the right game plan. Now, where have I heard that before?