Backgammon is a dynamic game. Staring at isolated positions gets pretty dull. Skills then develop out of baby steps, the motion, the flow. And that’s where the miniature game enters the picture. Miniature games, often perfectly played, cause swings in equity that rival the volatile disasters from yesterdays gone by.

A miniature game becomes a courtly dance, visited knightly by the royal Cube. The doubling cube is exclusively a weapon in short games. By definition. Knock-out punch. Full-scale attack. Hard-stick diplomacy.

White opens the game with the best roll: 13s and makes the white 5pt. Tactics in backgammon revolve around the 5pts and all three game plans basically require such strength.

Black replies with 65s, also a natural roll loved by all. Black saves a runner and promotes the idea of running the other 24pt straggler. Since Black rolled a green-light eleven and White only rolled a red-light four in pips, running is a sensible strategy for Black.

White rolls 35s. The olden days suggested White make her third home board point but the voluntary 8pt blot, when hit, just makes Black’s running game a better plan.

Nowadays, White restacks her 8pt and splits her runners within Black’s home board. This play balances development without offering Black a pile of pips.

Then Black rolls 53s also. Black’s argument for making the home 3pt is better than White’s for hers. However, the natural game plan here suggests a run towards escape and freedom.

White stuns the life out of Black’s game by rolling White double 66s. After White plays, the position above shows Black on the bar dancing, and White with a healthy prime plus spares for development or attack. A dozen white checkers in the attack zone.

Black enters the dancer from the bar and waits for the onslaught, the black blot exposed.

White reaches for the cube and Doubles Black.

White has a menacing cube in this position.

Run checkers. Build points. Hit blots. All verbs. Running game plan. Priming GP. Blockade for the ages.

In this game Black has no development, only one safe runner. The other black runner must pay the full price, must run the gauntlet. It is too much to ask any blot.

Black should Pass the cube.

A miniature game. Only six checker plays and only one cube decision. No goof-ups. But the game is over.

.