Safe vs Bold - sorted

Paul Magriel’s ‘Backgammon’ is rightly famous, and his chapter on ‘Safe Play vs Bold Play’ is one of its most famous sections. The principles that Magriel sets out still hold good today, with one important update by Michy. See the handy diagram below for all the details.

In today’s position, you meet all the criteria for bold play - you have the anchor but you’re not yet clearly winning plus you have another checker back, you have a stronger inner board, white has only one checker back and has a blot in their inner board.

So what’s the bold play here? Hopefully you found 23/16. It escapes your back checker and gives you dominance in the outfield, at a time when you don’t mind too much being hit.

If you found the play easily but weren’t sure why, then you’ve probably got a good implicit grasp of Magriel principles. Making them explicit so you consider them throughout your play can help improve your game in trickier positions.