Post Crawford Confusion

What's up backgammon fans? In this blog post, we're gonna discuss a very relevant topic, especially for non-expert players, which is the post-Crawford confusion. For that, let’s firstly talk about the Crawford Rule.

What is the Crawford Rule?

The Crawford rule says that when one player achieves a match point, for instance, if we're playing a five-point match and I'm leading 4-1, the following game will be the Crawford game, which means that the cube cannot come into play. In other words, the trailer must win this game without the cube.

What are Post-Crawford Games?

Then we get into the post-Crawford games, where the trailer can and should double immediately because he has nothing to lose. If he loses just one point, he loses the match. So he might as well just double and thereby double up the stakes.

This means that in the post-Crawford games, all points are essentially played to double up on the stake. In that case, we play for two points instead of one, and a game won would be four points instead of two points and so forth.

From the trailer's point of view, it doesn't matter whether he's two away or one away from winning because we're gonna play for two points anyway. Similarly, it doesn't matter whether the trailer is three away or four away because, again, he needs to win two games in order to win the match. The same is true for five away or six away, as well. It's just three games, single wins away from winning the match. There is almost no difference between the two. That means that it's a little bit strange phenomenon happening with the cube because of that effect, and that is the concept of the free take or the free drop.

What we have to figure out when we are leading in the game is that: When our opponent doubles us, do we have a free take or a free drop?

What I personally do in that case is to simply just think out loud like: “Okay, one away or two away is the same. Three away or four away is the same. Five away, a six away is the same.”

For instance, if I'm leading 4-1, it means my opponent is 4 away. If he doubles me and I take it and he wins, he will get to 2 away. That's just a single win away from winning, which means that if I drop it, he will be 3 away. Then he's still two wins away, just like he was before the game. So, 4 away and 3 away are the same, which means that I have a free drop. That means that in the position we are facing, if I'm just the slightest underdog in the position, I can just drop and reset the board and start all over again. And it's the same: he's still two single wins away from winning the match.

Had the score been 4-2 to 5, so now my opponent is 3 away, and I'm 1 away, all of a sudden I have a free take because if I drop it, he's gonna be 2 away, which is just a single win away from winning the game. If I take it and I lose a single game, then he's 1 away. Then he's still just a single game away. So it makes no difference. As long as I don't lose a gammon, I have a free take. If I just win 1% in the position, I should take. Of course, it also depends on gammons, which will be discussed later.

The overall idea of the free take and the free drop was just like that. Ask yourself: “How many games is my opponent away from winning?”. The answer to that will guide you to figuring out whether you have a free drop or a free take.

How to Evaluate a Position

Let's have a look at some positions here to see how to evaluate a position. What does that actually mean to have a free take or a free drop?

When you have a free take, it means that if you don't lose any gammons, all you need is 1% winning chances in the game. Then, you can take it because you're not risking anything.

Let's say your opponent gets the best roll possible. -I am your opponent, that would be me.-

I'm getting 3-1 here in the opening, and you are leading. Let’s imagine I am 5 away, and you are 1 away, and you get one of your worst rolls here. Let's say you get a 5-1, which is a pretty bad roll:

Now I double because I'm trailing. Of course, I should just have an automatic double start, so I double. And you now have a free take because if you drop, I'm gonna be 4 away. If you take and lose, I'm gonna be 3 away. That's the same, right? So, even though you're an underdog here, you can just take it. It's no problem; you have a free take.

But what if the score had been 4 away or 1 away? All of a sudden, you have a free drop because you can just drop it. I'm still two wins away, so why would you take a position where you're an underdog? You can just drop it, give me one point, reset the position, start all over again, which wouldn’t create any problem.You were an underdog, but all of a sudden, it's 50-50 again. I didn't gain anything, and I'm still the same number of wins away from winning the match.

I hope this blog post gave some clarity into your match-play strategy. It's a very important concept because if you get this wrong, for instance, if you take a free drop or if you drop a free take, you can commit some horrible blunders. In order to grasp this topic, you can check out some matches that you played and make sure that you learn this concept with Extreme Gammon or with your Backgammon Galaxy analysis window. You can also try to Google it; there are articles online on this topic as well. See you in the next blog post!

You can see the full video here!