2023 - Position 168

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Match Play. Red leads 8-5 to 11. How should Red play 41?

Red trails in the race and has a single rear checker. In addition, he has a very inefficient stack of checkers on his mid-point.

Playing bar/24/20 just invites a blitz attack. It is the wrong game plan and very nearly a double blunder. Bar/24, 13/9 is the right idea. The outer board blots can only be hit with in direct numbers. Meanwhile the checker on the 24-pt is largely out of harm’s way.