You know these positions where it doesn’t matter whether you move this or that checker?
Turns out, sometimes it does.
Have a look at this move:
What’s your opinion on this move? Was it good? What other move might have been better and why?
When playing this move, I probably spent something like 300 milliseconds on it. Get checker from the bar, do something with the remaining 1 that doesn’t affect the game too much. Maybe move the last checker. Always good.
Which was a blunder worth 0.12 points of equity.
The correct move is bar/21 6/5, NOT moving the checker on the 14.
I’m still a bit stunned about this. Yes, I’m doubling the chances of my opponent hitting me – a 66 is 1/36, and a 65 is 1/18. And given his 5-point board that’s almost certainly turning the game around. But 1/36 is nearly nothing. Probably part of the explanation is my blot on the 21 point. So it’s not that my opponent has a single chance to hit me with a 65. He also can first hit me with any 1 and 3, and while I’m trying to get in from the bar, he can roll a 6 and later a 5, for a sure win and even good gammon chances.
And as there is not a single tiny drawback of moving 6/5, I should just have spent more than a fraction of a second to consider this move. Even the simple ones might not be so simple.