Position 2

is Player 2 score: 0 pip: 132

1 point match

pip: 161 score: 0 is Player 1

XGID=-a---AD-D---bD---cde----B-:0:0:1:53:0:0:0:1:10

to play 53

eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.19.211.pre-release

XG made a clever move here that I would have missed. The normal follow up to a missed 5pt-slot would be 13/5. Here, however, the normal play is a big mistake.

The key feature of the position is Brown's offense, which is coiled like a spring and ready to take advantage of a great many rolls. 13/5 does nothing to address that and leaves Brown free to improve. After covering with the 3, the best 5 is 6/1*, taking away half of Brown's upcoming roll and preventing him from making offensive progress unless he rolls doubles. White's position is fine, but he needs the tempo hit to ensure that he's able to stay competitive over the next several turns.

Backgammon is largely a game of pattern recognition. But those patterns can march us into trouble when we follow them blindly. I find that many of my early game errors are due to my following normally sound patterns when the game has gone in an unusual direction.

The rollout:

is Player 1 score: 0 pip: 132

1 point match

pip: 161 score: 0 is Player 2

XGID=-a---AD-D---bD---cde----B-:0:0:1:53:0:0:0:1:10

to play 53

1.	Rollout1	8/5 6/1*	eq: -0.148
	Player: Opponent: 42.62% (G:12.59% B:0.85%) 57.38% (G:22.47% B:5.08%) Conf.: ± 0.006 (-0.153...-0.142) - [100.0%] Duration: 4 minutes 32 seconds
2.	Rollout1	13/5	eq: -0.214 (-0.066)
	Player: Opponent: 39.32% (G:10.27% B:1.09%) 60.68% (G:22.62% B:4.96%) Conf.: ± 0.005 (-0.219...-0.208) - [0.0%] Duration: 3 minutes 54 seconds
1 1296 Games rolled with Variance Reduction. Dice Seed: 2 Moves: 3-ply, cube decisions: XG Roller

eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.19.211.pre-release, MET: Kazaross XG2