Safety Now, Soon, or Later?

Your ‘Safety Now’ option is 10/7 10/6, which leaves no immediate return shots but still requires you to bring two checkers home.

The ‘Safety Soon’ option of 14/7 leaves 5 shots but makes it easier to bring your final checker round to safety next move.

And your ‘Safety Later’ option is 8/4 7/4, which strengthens your board and provides an easier bear-in and bear-off in the future, but at the expense of 6 immediate shots and a much tougher time bringing your remaining checkers safely home.

You’re 35 pips ahead in the race, and your opponent holds the cube, so you’re trying to play passively without creating too much volatility. That should rule out Safety Later (it’s a blunder).

Your opponent is likely to enter on their next roll, so this move is probably the most constrained they’re going to be. That’s the moment to take a little bit of risk to maximise safety in the future and minimise volatility. The Safety Soon 14/7 is the right move, with the Safety Now option as a middling error.