Match Play Cube Lesson | Position Analysis

The position below came up in a major backgammon tournament I was playing in recently. I was black and leading by a score of 7-2 in a match to 9. I was on roll. The question is, should I double, and if I double, should white take or drop the cube?

This is an extremely interesting position because of the score. I can win the match by winning a gammon even if I don’t double, and if I roll a 1, 2, 3, or 8 I make my 5 point and have an excellent change to win a gammon. So for that reason, it is wrong for black to double here.

What makes this especially interesting is that if black does decide to double, white should take. If white drops, he’s losing 8-2, and because of the Crawford Rule (he cannot double for one game) his winning chances are very slim. But if he takes the cube and immediately redoubles to 4, he actually has better changes of winning the match than if he drops the cube.

For those of you interested, the Snowie Evaluation is below. It shows that black will win this game about 80 percent of the time, and about 22 percent of the time it will be a gammon. The lesson here for black is: why risk letting your opponent win 4 points when you can win the entire match, and if things go wrong, you only lose 1 point?

This position also illustrates how much more complex the cube strategy is when you play matches than when you play straight money games.

Note: Phil Simborg is a playing and teaching professional living in Chicago. He gives lessons on line, and can be reached at psimborg@sbcglobal.net.