Nack,
Thank you for your thorough reply. I appreciate it.
As for the "checkers in the zone" discussion - I should have been more careful and accurate with my words. I am familiar with the way you defined it in your book, although I have seen different definitions.
I believe we agree on the significant increased value of a checker that is moved to the 3rd quadrant of the board (i.e., to the 7-12 points) but technically is not in the zone (i.e., not a builder for an inside point). For that reason and since I use this tool quite often, I adopted an adjusted terminology/notation for self use in the following way: If the checker is in the 3rd quadrant but is not in the zone, than I define it as half a checker in the zone, or a checker in the quasi-zone (the latter is more appropriate in my opinion). For example, in the diagram below, I have 8 checkers and 2 halves in the zone, or alternatively, 8 checkers in the zone and 2 checkers in the quasi-zone.
I am not looking to suggest something new, but rather share my 2 cents on how I think I upgraded the "checkers in the zone" tool for my personal use.
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eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10