It’s Good To Have A Plan

‘What’s Your Game Plan?’ is a great book, reminding us how important it is to Have A Plan. Your plan may need to change every move, and it’s always going to be dependent on, and hugely influenced by, the dice you roll, but much of the time you do need a basic idea of what you’re trying to achieve, and why. And a ‘plan’ often involves thinking about how the game’s likely to develop over the next few rolls.

Take this position. You’re in a back game structure and way behind in the race, but it’s still far too early to be planning for a back game. You need to be thinking instead about how to switch to a forward game - harrying White’s back checkers as they try to come home safely, but also at some stage getting your own back checkers moving.

With that plan in mind, hopefully you reject preparing to grab your own 5-point with 20/10. Your board is already strong, and adding another point (while never bad) isn’t what’s needed now.

Instead you want to create more immediate danger for White in the outfield with 20/14 20/16. White has no board and a home-board blot, so you can afford to take some risks. Diversifying your outfield checkers gives you more shots if White tries to run. And if you secure an outfield anchor (since you’ve lost the midpoint) it will make it much easier bringing your own back checkers round later on.

Read Hickey & Storer’s book for a much fuller discussion.