Balancing a Blitz

Your top priority when blitzing is closing out your opponent. But that doesn’t always work out, so you need to keep an eye on other priorities too. In this position you still have work to do in freeing your back checkers, and you also have a potent priming game to switch to if the blitz doesn’t work out.

All of which means that 13/7 10/4 9/3(2)* is too one-sided. It maximises your blitz chances but leaves you vulnerable to crunching if you can’t immediately escape. The better plays start to bring out your back checkers. 21/15(2) 9/3(2)* is safest but fails to give you any builders for the blitz. 21/3* 9/3 is more flexible but riskier and still fails to give you builders. 21/15 10/4 9/3(2)* gives you the builder but is riskiest of the three plays, scattering too many blots around.

The best move is  21/15 13/7 9/3(2)* - getting the back checkers moving while also bringing a builder into range and strengthening your priming game if needed.