Robertie Problems - The Blitz (173-206)

Hi, welcome back to Bass from Backam. On this episode, we'll be looking at problem 202 in Bill Robert's 501 essential Backman problem series. In this problem, black is to play a 52. You'll notice again, black is in a commanding position. We have a fivepoint prime, at least I should say five points inside, not a prime. Uh, white has two on the bar and we've got two checkers stuck here on 23. We have a 5-2 to play. What do you do here? Take into account what we've said in the previous couple of examples, last couple of days, and try to apply it to this uh particular example. We're playing a 52. I'll give you 10 seconds to decide. Hit the pause button if you need more time. All right. So, um, Robera's play here is 13 to8 in order to have a builder uh, for the four-point and 23 to 21. Let's read why. At the tail end of a successful blitz, you need to balance attacking and escaping. Black has three plays in position 202. Let me bring that back to the original. uh we can escape. So it's all escape with 23- 16 all attack with 138 1311 and some of each with 138 and 23 to 21. Playing the five from 13 to 8 gives a direct shot at the four point and that's very good for the attack. and playing the deuce from 13 to 11 only gives oh I'm sorry 13 to1 11 only gives a couple of extra indirect numbers at the four point and that's not a very powerful attacking play on the other side playing 23 to 21 is great for escaping now 66 55 and 65 are great shots rather than many disasters the balanced play of 13 to8 and 23 to 21 is the top choice so what we're saying here is that since we're playing at two 52 two. Bringing down the two here only gives you an indirect shot, so it doesn't add much to your attack. But by splitting back here, now sixes and fives both escape. So they're not bad numbers anymore, especially with double sixes, double fives, or six fives where you'd have to bring in uh guys from down here and bury checkers beyond the uh the point where white can get in. So you're losing ammunition. So that's why he says balancing the attack and the defense is the best move here. But let's see what XG has to say about it. I'm going to throw it over for that analysis right now. And we're back with our analysis of problem 202. Roberie says a balanced play in defense and offense. 23 to 21 138 is the right play here. Uh there are some um arguments to be made for jumping out. There are arguments to be made for bringing two down. Uh what do we do? Let's see. XG agrees with Roertie. It's a mistake to do anything else. Although the minor mistake is jumping out. The major mistake is bringing two down. That's a blunder to bring two down. Um and I think the reason it's a blunder is that 138 and 13 um 1311 is vulnerable to a 44. You're you're leaving yourself a chance to get hit by a 4-4. you're still leaving yourself a chance to get hit um just by bringing one down, doing the balanced attack. But with a 44, you have the possibility of um anchoring up on 21. Now, there's a chance if your opponent rolls the joker 44, they come in with the two fours and instead of leaping out with two fours, they hit one four from four to eight and then one four from 17 to 21. But that would just be insane because they're giving up um they're giving up part of their prime. They're uh their two blotss inside. Now there's two blotss on the outside as well. So that's probably not going to be a case. Um but still a 44 would be a joker um with bringing two down. Um not as big of a joker, but clearly um not as big of a joker as as uh uh if uh if he brought two down if he brought just one down and got hit. Sorry. That's that's where I'm getting at. Okay, reset. 2321 138 is the right play. Uh these are the numbers from XG. You can see them here. Uh it's a blunder to bring two down and it's a minor error to jump out uh to 23 to 16. Okay, we got through that. Excellent. Thanks for if you stuck with me this long while I'm rambling. Uh thank you very much. And uh please if you like the video, please like, please subscribe to the video series. Subscriptions are important. and uh interact with us in the comment section because I do get back to people in the comments section and I do take your feedback for um better things I can do with this uh with this video series. Uh I've already taken a lot of formatting feedback uh to heart and it's definitely getting better as a result. What else? Uh we're here every single day at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Uh I upload a new video and and that will not stop. That's my goal. No stopping until we get to 501. So, uh, this was 202 and I'll see you tomorrow morning with 203. Thanks for watching.