Okay, after finding no backgammon apps worth reviewing for weeks it’s time to write a bit about difficult backgammon positions (or at least ones that I find difficult, YMMV).
Actually I’ve written a little tool for DailyGammon users that analyzes your past matches and turns them into multiple choice quizzes of all your blunders. It is currently in very early testing, so I can’t share it yet, but it shows me all my blunders and the blunders of my opponents. And some of them are weird.
Like this one:
Red to move 41. What is the best move? Solution below.
Red is way behind in the race, and he has a checker on the bar. I find it logical to play BAR/24 20/16* and to hit my opponent. He also has only a three point board and I will continue to have an anchor. All good.
Turns out this is a blunder. The correct move is BAR/20, not hitting. Seems the advanced anchor is more important, particularly as red’s home board is non-existent.
The initial analysis of Gnu BG for my app said BAR/24 20/16* is a serious -0.25 blunder. BGBlitz is less critical, judges it -0.053 (4-ply), but still. It’s better to play safe and not hit here, which is absolutely not my intuition.