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Miscellaneous
> What do those numbers mean?
The numbers are a common way of describing the movement of checkers.
The points around the board are assigned numbers from 24 to 1:
+24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+18-17-16-15-14-13-+
| X O | | O X |
| X O | | O X |
| O | | O X |
| O | | X |
| O | | X |
| | | |64
| | | |
| X | | O |
| X | | O |
| X | | X O |
| O X | | X O |
| O X | | X O |
+-1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+-7--8--9-10-11-12-+
This board is seen from X's perspective, and he is moving clockwise,
so his 2 checkers on the 24 point have the farthest to travel before
being able to bear off.
Let's look at an example from the original post:
62 - 24/18 13/11
The 62 represents the roll to be played; the other numbers represent
the movement of the checkers. In this case, the poster is indicating
that the 6 will be played by moving a checker from the 24-point to the
18-point, and that the 2 will be played by moving a checker from the
13-point to the 11-point. After the move, the board will look like
this:
+24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+18-17-16-15-14-13-+
| X O | | X O X |
| O | | O X |
| O | | O X |
| O | | X |
| O | | |
| | | |64
| | | |
| X | | O |
| X | | O |
| X | | X O |
| O X | | X O |
| O X | | X X O |
+-1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+-7--8--9-10-11-12-+
If a move results in a checker being hit, this is indicated by adding
a * to the end of that portion of the move. For example, if O rolled
64 in the position above he might play:
64: 1/11*
Since it is not important whether the 6 or the 4 first was played
first, the intermediate step (1/7/11* or 1/5/11*) can be omitted. If
X had left a blot on the 5-point which O also wanted to hit), the move
can be described as follows:
64: 1/5*/11*
Note that an asterisk immediately follows the point on which a checker
is hit.
Doubles are often shown by placing the number of checkers moved in
parens after the move. For example, if O rolls 22, it could be noted
as either
19/21(2) 12/14(2) or
19/21 19/21 12/14 12/14
It's common to use the words "bar" or "off" to describe moves where
checkers are entered from the bar or taken off during bear off. For
example:
bar/24 13/9 or
5/off 4/off
Finally, it's common (though not always observed--I didn't do it in
the examples above for the sake of simplicity) to reverse the
numbering of the points when O is on roll. So the 24-point now
becomes O's 1-point, and the 7-point now becomes 0's 18-point.
Hope this helps. If I left anything out, or something is unclear,
feel free to drop me an email.
Dean
("Chase" on FIBS and GamesGrid)
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