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Inefficient Races

by Douglas Zare
1 July 2005

Douglas Zare

Simple racing formulas tell us the take point for efficient races, where neither side has buried checkers.

In a long race, the trailer can take while trailing by L/10+2 pips (round down).

In a short race, the trailer can take while trailing by L/7 - 1 pip (round to the nearest pip), where L is the leader's pip count.

(See Walter Trice's "From Pip Count To Cube Action" for more details on interpreting these formulas.)

Red to roll or double.
Red leads 56-63.

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Subject: Re: Inefficient Races

From: hhpete Member has a photo available

Date: 04 Jul 2005 08:57 EST

This article boils race inefficiency down to an amount of numbers even I can hope to remember and apply :-). It will be an essential part of my race and EPC repertoire.

Thanks for this great concise article, Douglas.

Peter

Subject: Re: Inefficient Races

From: Ian Shaw Member has a photo available

Date: 04 Jul 2005 09:13 EST

Top stuff, again, Douglas. I've been pondering how to effectively mix 'n' match race formulae with epc, and this helps a lot. Not difficult to remember for OTB use, either.

Just a couple of minor points.

The penultimate diagram (a 1.004 pass) ought to have only 6 chequers on White's ace point. White currently has 16 chequers.

In the application example, I felt that the part about "White could easily take in a mutually efficient race of this length while trailing by 7 pips..." could have benefited from a lengthier explanation. It isn't immediately obvious that red's epc is 74.9, which if it were an efficient race wasting the typical 7.5 pips, would come to the 67 points you quote.

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