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Black hits white’s blot on black’s 12 point with a man from white’s 12 point and moves the 3 from white’s 12 point to his own 10 point.

This is one of the most fascinating decisions of the game. If white’s two men on the 5 point had been on the 4 point, we are sure that black would have blocked his 9 point with the 3-1, thereby containing white’s three men in his inner board unless white rolled a 6. In this position white has very little in reserve and might easily be forced into breaking his blockade. But since the men were on the 5 point, black elected to go into a massive back game. An ingenious and daring play.

13/10, 13/12*

13/12*/9

Rollout  Tom Keith 2013

Money play Black owns 2-cube Black rolls 3-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller

XGID=----abBBBA--aCa--b-bbbbBC-:1:1:1:31:0:0:0:0

	3-1:		Game	G	BG	Equity
1	13/12*/9	W L	.3934 .6066	.0704 .3259	.0035 .0568	−0.3353
2	13/9	W L	.3604 .6396	.0468 .3451	.0024 .0707	−0.4815	(0.1462)
3	13/12*, 9/6	W L	.3295 .6705	.0446 .3677	.0022 .0744	−0.5950	(0.2597)
4	13/10, 13/12*	W L	.3360 .6640	.0265 .4284	.0010 .1470	−0.7191	(0.3838)

“Three Great Games,” Backgammon: the Cruelest Game

Backgammon: the Cruelest Game (1974), by Barclay Cooke and Jon Bradshaw