Your first move - part 5

Does your opponent having a priming structure against you, or a blitzing structure? In the early game that is a crucial question to ask yourself. Hopefully that’s becoming second-nature now?

If they’re priming you, you’ll want to fight for an advanced anchor - splitting your back checkers to increase the chances of doing so. If they’re blitzing you, you’ll be more cautious about splitting (it just offers them blots to hit and plays into their strengths) and instead should focus on trying to prime them in response.

And here? White is blitzing you (the 2pt and the 8pt can’t form part of a useful prime, so they’ll be happy to break the 8pt to hit you if they can). So don’t bring a back checker forward - plays like 24/21 are badly wrong.

13/11 6/5 is the clear right answer here - starting to build a prime on your side of the board. The difference between the two is a decent-sized error.

Slotting (putting a blot on a valuable point that you hope to make next roll) is a subject we’ll be returning to…