The castle of three-point matches has a lonely room for those players who push and push and crawl, grinding from the start of the match. These lonely players push the first game of the match into a cube and pass, score now one-zero, thereby improving their match chances from 50% to 60%. Then, encouraged in the second game, they push again, hoping to crawl from 60% to 75% in the match with yet another cube and pass. But at that second game cube, which anticipates a pass, beware of the rewhip cube. Suddenly, the opponent takes the cube, instead of dropping it. One dice toss later, a redouble boomerangs back. A flick of the scorpion’s tail and then a rapid halt, the match is stunned. The whole match is now up for grabs from this board position, the past no longer prologue.

Sometimes a three-point match feels like speed dating. Young Miss White sits down in the chair across.

“Pleasure finally to meet you, Mr Black. I heard you made it to a big tournament this year. Finally. How’s business? Chouettes and personal sessions been profitable during the downturn?”

The rattle of the dice cups, the click of the checkers, and soon Black is losing this match, zero Black and White one. In the first game Miss White ignores the courtesy of playing a bearoff. Abruptly, the cube makes its presence known. Quietly. Like a new sheriff in town. White doubles. Black drops. One-zero.

Then, in the second game, White gets frisky. White doubles in this game too, as impudent as in the last. Pleased to meet you. Personal sessions. White up and cubes. Miss White’s demeanor reveals no hint of the personal danger that her white double entails. A one point lead in the match is soon flushed away.

Black may take the cube. Should White win this game, White wins the match. What’s good for the white goose is good for the black gander. Black intends to redouble as soon as legality allows — rewhip — the cube to four. A challenge aimed directly at White. Simple contest. This game for the match.

How good would White’s position need to be on the board to double and forget the enchanted memory of last game?

Very good question. Why trash talk a former win in a short match? Or, by contrast, how bad would Black’s position need to be for Black to pass this game and somehow try his chances at Crawford-zero?

Does Miss White even wonder about the chances of winning a three-point match when leading zero black and Crawford white? Perhaps Miss White lacks an easy way to figure out that fraction. But, using the black arts of a three-point match, here is a simple trick to recall such numbers: from the score, figure the number of points away from victory for White, and add to it the number away for Black, then divide that sum into the number away for your opponent. That fraction is your chance of winning the match.

At this score, Black must still win three points, White at Crawford just the one, so Black’s chance of winning the match by again passing the cube and starting a fresh third game is one-in-four, a fraction figured from one plus three, then divided into one. To take the cube Black needs a shade more than one-quarter of the match-winning chances, however small or large, presented in this game position. If Black takes, every won game by White wins her the match. At the moment after the black take, only gammon victories clinch the match for Black. The Plan: Redouble immediately after White’s next roll of the dice. Then every won game by Black also wins the match. Goose. Gander. That is the rewhip cube.

Why would White make this double in game two? Why cube into a rewhip situation before the typical take point of a cash game? White wants to gain something. Before the cube White only wins the match in this game by winning a gammon. After the cube White wins the match by simply winning the game. But, after the rewhip cube, Black now wins the match with all his victories here, single or gammon.

Young Miss White is impetuous. She reaches for the doubling cube …