Starting Out

It's important to get each game going with a good play. All the old text books had advice on what the best plays were and the arrival on the scene of Jellyfish, Snowie and Gnu meant that keen students could check the accuracy of ideas on the opening plays by playing the starting position over and over again until there was an answer that lay within the program's margin of error. The latest bot, Extreme Gammon 2, is by common consent the most powerful yet and it incorporates a "book" of opening plays and some replies that is the closest yet to being definitive. For your convenience I reproduce a table below of the plays that XG will make on the opening, all of which have been exhaustively tested by a high level rollout.
There are four columns, the first is the correct play for money and for all practical purposes you can assume that this is also the best "normal" play for early in a match, when scores are level or very close. The second column is the best opening at Double Match Point and you can also use this column for Post-Crawford 2-away and 2-away, 2-away games, where the game is very likely to be cubeless and gammon free. The third column is Gammon Save, to be used in the Crawford game when it is important to avoid a gammon, i.e. Crawford, 2-away, 4-away etc.
You can usually use this column when leading towards the end of a long match and in any short match too. The last column is GammonGo, to be used in the Crawford game when it is important to win a gammon, e.g. 2-away, Crawford, 4-away, Crawford etc. You can usually also use this column when trailing towards the end of a long match or in a short one.
You can of course print this page off and use it to cheat, but I hope that you won't do that. Keep it by you and check after you have made your play. That way you will soon learn it.

Opening	$	Dmp	GS	GG
65	24/13	24/13	24/13	24/13
64	24/18, 13/9	24/14	24/14	8/2, 6/2
63	24/18, 13/10	24/18, 13/10	24/18, 13/10	24/18, 13/10
62	24/18, 13/11	24/18, 13/11	24/18, 13/11	13/5
61	13/7, 8/7	13/7, 8/7	13/7, 8/7	13/7, 8/7
54	24/20, 13/8	24/20, 13/8	24/20, 13/8	13/8, 13/9
53	8/3, 6/3	8/3, 6/3	8/3, 6/3	8/3, 6/3
52	24/22, 13/8	24/22, 13/8	24/22, 13/8	13/8, 13/11
51	24/23, 13/8	24/23, 13/8	24/23, 13/8	13/8, 6/5
43	13/10, 13/9	24/21, 13/9	24/21, 13/9	13/10, 13/9
42	8/4, 6/4	8/4, 6/4	8/4, 6/4	8/4, 6/4
41	24/23, 13/9	13/9, 6/5	24/23, 13/9	13/9, 6/5
32	24/21, 13/11	24/21, 13/11	24/21, 13/11	13/10, 13/11
31	8/5, 6/5	8/5, 6/5	8/5, 6/5	8/5, 6/5
21	13/11, 6/5	13/11, 6/5	13/11, 6/5	13/11, 6/5

Some of these plays have very close alternates and for one of them, 64, don't use the money column in match play. At the start of a 3pt match, play 24/14, while for 5pts or more, play 8/2, 6/2. These are not big differences, a few thousandths of a point, but I mention this before somebody else does!

Tip of the Week. The simplest way to improve is to allow yourself a little more thinking time on tough plays. The simplest way to achieve this when faced with a roll where the play is not immediately obvious, is to let go of the mouse while you think! Try it.

One of the fastest and most interesting ways to improve is to study the matches of the best players, particularly when annotated to explain why a play is good (or bad). I have two annotated matches for sale, featuring Mochizuki Masayuki, the 2010 World Champion. They are annotated by me with the approval of and some comments by Mochy. Each is $10 and comes as an XG or Gnu file, with commentary based on XG analysis. For those who prefer to read the plays and use a real board, it also comes as a word document with many colour diagrams for $15 and this includes the XG file.
Mochy v. Falafel, 13pts
Mochy v. Carlo Melzi, 13 pts.
Orders and PayPal to me please at dorbel(at)gmail(dot)com.

Tomorrow a look at some aggressive cube actions when trailing. Until then, enjoy the game!