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Week 007: May 4th 2001 by George Miller
Completing the Deck
For a number of years the
Checker / Draughts community have been debating the soundness of those ballots
that have been excluded from the 3-Move Deck.
This deck, or set of openings, is used in all major tournaments and has
had very little change since the original 137 openings were "agreed"
in 1931. Only one ballot has been
removed from the deck, whereas eight have been added. The original selection was made very quickly and without deep
analysis, erring on the "safe" side.
This has resulted in eleven candidates for inclusion, the deck being
settled once and for all by January 2002. I will summarise the candidates below.
The "Wilderness"
Group
This group includes 9-13,
22-18, 11-16; 9-13, 23-18, 11-16; 11-16, 22-17, 9-13.
These openings often run into one another and have been used in mail play
since the mid 1980's. In the early matches white found numerous attacks, forcing
black to find the key defences. The
openings stand as testimony to those early pioneers in that the defences remain
intact, whilst offering a plethora of opportunities for white to score - truly a
fine set of 3-movers, sound but difficult to handle!
The Gemini Ballots
The openings 10-14, 22-17,
11-16 and 10-15, 23-19, 11-16 can easily run into the same landings.
These openings definitely favour white offering several attacks.
There are transpositions into sound published play on
"approved" ballots again giving players opportunity.
Two Old Favourites
The openings 11-16, 23-19,
16-23 and 9-13, 22-18, 10-14 were doing the rounds at the turn of the
19th century and have been at the heart of many a mail match of
recent years. There are many
attacks, but each has been defended successfully.
These ballots offer excellent endgame opportunities with a variety of
approach lines.
The Bland
10-14, 22-17, 11-15 and
9-13, 23-19, 10-15 offer little in the way of criticality.
The attacks are straightforward, although there is some scope towards the
ending. Anyone well versed in the
ID Mail ty booklets of the 1990's should have no problem in drawing these.
The Sublime
I was tempted to place this
opening in the Bland category, 12-16, 24-20, 10-15 has had an interesting
history over the last four years. I
knocked out the main defence, using the correction to good use in my match with
Jerry Childers. The
"approved" defences gave white many wining chances and were riddled
with errors. This was the
interesting time to play the strong side and a nervous time for the defender.
However Nigel Proffitt showed that the simple 8-12 gave black a tenable
game and although white has several tries the ballot is not as critical as once
thought. The 9-13, 24-20, 11-16
ballot is packed with problems. There
are two main attacks after the "mandatory" 23-18 with perhaps 27-24
being the most potent. Recent mail
matches have cast doubt on one defensive resource but black has the luxury of
another to save the day.
I will show a trunk game for
each ballot starting with 9-13, 23-19, 10-15 next week!
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