If anyone plays chess, they may be familiar with "skewers" and "pins". A "pin" is when a man checks the king, and the only move the opponent can make is to block the threat with one of their high ranking men, of which the threatening man can capture the next turn.
A "skewer" is like the dual of a pin: A man checks the king, leaving the opponent no other choice but to move the king out of the way, leaving a clear path to a high ranking man for which to capture on the next turn.
Pool is a little different, because the playing board is not discrete. The number of "squares" of the chess board (pool table) are infinite, and the placement of your "man" depends on fine motor skills. Nevertheless, if one is a high level player, then the placement of the cue ball can correlate to the player's strategy because he can move to man to more or less where he wants it.
Thinking of most multiplayer pool games, there are to major classes of shots; pocketing and safeties. Pocketing is akin to capturing a man, and safeties are akin to setting up a defensive.
My question is, has anyone in pool studied "strategic safety play"? This would suggest that a safety is played so precisely, that the only choice the opponent has in attempts to not foul, is to shoot a shot resulting in a strategic advantage to the safety player. Maybe for example, this could mean placing the CB such that the natural angle after contact with the required OB will break out a cluster.
The difference between chess and pool, is again discrete, where a chess player may at times be forced into one specific response to a threat, where as in pool the cue ball can go anywhere.
It could be that a "strategic safety" is simply too hard to accomplish consistently to be a feasible play, and the uncertainty in opponent accuracy ruins it. But maybe there are circumstances where this is worth thinking about.
I was just wondering if anyone has researched this class of shots.
A "skewer" is like the dual of a pin: A man checks the king, leaving the opponent no other choice but to move the king out of the way, leaving a clear path to a high ranking man for which to capture on the next turn.
Pool is a little different, because the playing board is not discrete. The number of "squares" of the chess board (pool table) are infinite, and the placement of your "man" depends on fine motor skills. Nevertheless, if one is a high level player, then the placement of the cue ball can correlate to the player's strategy because he can move to man to more or less where he wants it.
Thinking of most multiplayer pool games, there are to major classes of shots; pocketing and safeties. Pocketing is akin to capturing a man, and safeties are akin to setting up a defensive.
My question is, has anyone in pool studied "strategic safety play"? This would suggest that a safety is played so precisely, that the only choice the opponent has in attempts to not foul, is to shoot a shot resulting in a strategic advantage to the safety player. Maybe for example, this could mean placing the CB such that the natural angle after contact with the required OB will break out a cluster.
The difference between chess and pool, is again discrete, where a chess player may at times be forced into one specific response to a threat, where as in pool the cue ball can go anywhere.
It could be that a "strategic safety" is simply too hard to accomplish consistently to be a feasible play, and the uncertainty in opponent accuracy ruins it. But maybe there are circumstances where this is worth thinking about.
I was just wondering if anyone has researched this class of shots.
