Mary Hickey – Strategy Articles
Mary Hickey
Mary Hickey – GammonLife Columnist
July 2006: Mary Hickey, who plays online as mamabear, has taught and written about backgammon for many years. She’s been Ohio Player of the Year for the last eight years in a row and won the Ohio Masters in 2002, 2003 and 2006.
Mary’s series of 14 strategy articles on GammonLife is called Game Plan Selection and you can read the articles below for free.
By the way, the backgammon book What’s Your Game Plan? Strategy in the Middle Game published in 2011 was written by Mary Hickey & Marty Storer. You can buy that book in Carol Joy Cole’s online Backgammon Boutique at this link: http://flintbg.com/boutique.html.
Click on a title to read an article.
Game Plan Selection 1 - Introduction to Series
by Mary Hickey - July 2006 Mary - Mary’s articles are about "game plan selection", problems where you have truly reached a fork in the road and must make a strategic, rather than tactical, decision which will probably determine the course of the rest of the game.
Game Plan Selection 2 - Attack or Prime?
by Mary Hickey - July 2006 - Red’s choice in the position below is whether to attack the loose checker in his homeboard or to form a five-point prime and split his back men. Here, the correct theme is...
Game Plan Selection 3 – Prime Time?
by Mary Hickey - August 2006 - Even the most contentious of chouette teams will agree on the first 4: bar/21. The next two 4s, with which we’re going to move two checkers together and make a point some place in the position below, are the strategic decision that will cause the arguments.
Game Plan Selection 4 - What Now, and What Next? - Part 1
by Mary Hickey - August 2006 - This problem and the next in the series will each show what is sometimes called an “exception”. But as we asked in the first of this series, what does that mean? It helps our thinking more if instead of calling something an “exception”, we look for another principle that supersedes the one we are trying to apply.
Game Plan Selection 5 - What Now, and What Next? - Part 2
by Mary Hickey - September 2006 - The following position arose later in the same game as last time’s problem, after the first player incorrectly attacked and made his ace point. Priming two or more checkers, the principle we explored two articles back, may be the best play to win this game.
Game Plan Selection 6 - Are You Sure it's a Backgame?
by Mary Hickey - September 2006 - When you have two deep points in your opponent’s board, don’t label it “backgame” in your mind too soon. At the early stages, just having two points in the opponent’s board isn’t enough. This is true even if you have what are normally considered excellent points for a backgame, as you do here...
Game Plan Selection 7 – Another Great Backgame - to Avoid!
by Mary Hickey - October 2006 We saw in the last column that four checkers back on two points don’t necessarily make a good backgame. It would follow, then, that if you are likely to have a hard time even getting your two points, having a fourth sent back might be a pretty bad idea...
Game Plan Selection 8 - Planning to Play to Win
by Mary Hickey - November 2006 - Welcome to the eighth article in my Game Plan Selection series here on GammonLife.com. The trap here over the actual board is to make the comfortable play without seeing its hidden dangers.
Game Plan Selection 9 - Committing to Containment
by Mary Hickey - December 2006 - In the position below, do you know what White wants to do? White just wants to escape, but what should Red’s game plan be? Whenever you have trapped an enemy checker but still have contact with his other men, you have to choose between trying to capture a second prisoner, or just hanging on to the one you have.
Game Plan Selection 10 - A Time for Letting Go
by Mary Hickey - January 2007 - Whenever we roll a big double, it may mean it’s time for a change of game plans. In the position below, a 4-4 swings the pip count advantage to our favor. When we play online, the automatic pip counter is our friend, but there’s only so much it can do for us. It can tell us we “want” to hit a shot, but it can’t tell us exactly how far to go in our efforts to get one.
Game Plan Selection 11 - Playing Against a Five-Point Block
by Mary Hickey - February 2007 - Red has some problems because he has two men struggling to escape a five-point prime. Since White also has a man to extricate, he may have some time - but how can he use it most effectively? Are you feeling claustrophobic back there behind your opponent’s block? If not, why not?
Game Plan Selection 12 - Kill or Let Die?
by Mary Hickey - March 2007 - No, it’s not the latest James Bond movie! This problem is another twist on a theme we have been exploring - what to do about a single checker in your board. There was a murder-for-hire case in the US a few years ago where an autopsy showed that the victim had advanced heart disease, and arteries that resembled cement culverts. If the killers had just waited about six months...
Game Plan Selection 13 - Run, or Let Him Run?
by Mary Hickey - March 2007 - Red’s anchor is an island of safety in a hostile sea, but he can’t stay there forever. Should he run now, or begin dismantling the block that is making it difficult for his opponent to do likewise? Last time, we introduced the concept of respect for a five-point board, and showed how we can get that respect by building one. This time, the lead concept is showing respect for your opponent’s five-point board.
Game Plan Selection 14 - Maintaining Respect
by Mary Hickey - May 2011 - It has been a while since I published any columns in this GammonLife series but it's not because I've lost interest in Game Plan Selection problems. Nothing could be further from the truth! Instead, I have been collecting them ever since my last column appeared here, and I have co-authored a book on this subject with Marty Storer. This problem was part of the original series, but fell through the cyber-cracks...