Credits
Position 136 in ‘Advanced Backgammon Vol 1: Positional Play’ by Bill Robertie
XG skin design by Rain
Analysis
There really is only one option here. You must hit on the acepoint with 13/1*(2).
Yes you’ve still got work to do to escape your back checker, and yes you still are only 58% favourite to win after this move. But what other options do you have? If you try to create your own 5-prime with 13/7(2) 17/5 (or something similar), you just end up with a forward structure that looks similar to your opponent’s - and they’ve got so much extra timing with their three checkers on the mid-point. You will end up crunching before them.
Instead - you have to disrupt and delay White, accepting that you may crunch a bit, and hoping for the 1 followed by the 6 to get your back checker out.
The lovely bonus when this works is that your gammons sky rocket. But that’s not the reason to make the play - it would still be the right move even if gammons were worthless.