Your first move - part 4

What could be nicer than a double 3 to start the game? Your opponent has split and built with their 43 opening roll, and you have - as always with doubles - lots of ways to play your reply. There’s only one right move though.

Let’s all agree to ignore 13/4*/1*. It’s a horrible blunder and you really don’t want to start trying to blitz your opponent with this roll. A common theme with an opening 33 is unstacking the 6pt , but 6/3(2) is not right here (for reasons we’ll be going into early next year!).

The only right move is 24/21(2) 13/10(2). Advancing your anchor is always good, particularly now White has brought down another builder for prime-building. And 13/10(2) sets you up to block White’s anchor on the 4pt, if they get round to making it. Generally speaking it’s good to try and “prime an anchor, hit a blot”, but when you can’t hit the blot it’s often better to create a variety of obstacles for White’s escaping checkers (various points in the outfield) rather than a single prime they might hop over.