Here Comes The Snowman

Here are three interesting doubling positions from a Fibs league match with roadkillbooks, a very strong player from Argentina. It's 1-1 to 9 and rkb playing White turns the cube in this position.

I almost passed this one, which would have been a an error, but not a big one. My take was based on the few rolls where White failed to cover, 6-6, 5-4, 4-3, 4-1, 3-1, coupled with some chances if she covered and I entered with a 1 and of course the chances that White may never escape both her back men. This is so close to a marginal take/pass that it is worth remembering as a reference position. In round figures, the rollout shows White winning 65% of the games, of which 35 are gammons. Blue wins a few gammons himself of course and the cube ownership is very useful. So, correct cube action on both sides.

Well, I managed to enter on the ace and jumped out, just as White escaped his last man and got hit, to leave us in this position.

I redoubled to 4, thinking that if I made the 6 prime, White wouldn't be able to take. In fact that is completely unrealistic. A six prime which has 15 checkers is pretty well unbeatable, as the spares allow a great deal of choice while you roll it home, but here I only have 13 checkers to arrange and this will give White a lot of opportunities to hit a fly shot and/or jump out, where her race lead and cube ownership will come into play. So, even if I make the prime, I will still be short of a redouble! I have to wait until I can put White on the bar and double her out if she flunks. I need 24% incorrect passes to make this redouble right and I don't think I have that many. White took.

That took us on the third big cube decision of this game.

I had to hit loose as White was at the edge of a five prime, White hit back from the bar and I danced. Here comes the snowman. This is a fairly easy take of course, as I am on the bar, so if nobody rolls a 6 I keep my prime while his board goes down the drain. Technically it isn't even a redouble until he escapes, because the double kills the gammons. For money you can redouble this, still an easy take of course.

These three positions are all good ones to remember and playing them out yourself a few times is a good idea, partly to understand what can happen from here and partly to cement them into your brain.

If you find yourself playing roadkillbooks, good to remember that he isn't frightened to use a recube, not the sort of fellow you want to double in early!

Note that I always use the she pronoun for the White pieces, so you know which side I am talking about. Roadkillbooks is not a she. Until the next time, enjoy the game!