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VSG

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Jan 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/5/00
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I'm the proud owner of several bg books. Magriel's "backgammon"; Roberties
"..for beginners",".. for serious players" and "Advanced Backgammon Vol.1" and
Kit woolseys "New ideas in backgammon."

I'm now at a stage where I need to go deeper into a top players thought
processes and was wondering if there are any good annotated matches in book form
rather than isolated position books. Ideal would be a book full of reasons why a
move is made. I believe there is a book with a Joe Dwek match or something like
that.Can anyone recommend a book of this kind for a strongish intermediate?

regards

Alan

dmg

unread,
Jan 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/5/00
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Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich produced a series of annotated matches
called Matchqiz. You can download a demo match for free from Stephen
Turner's page
(http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/backgammon/main.html). Links to
a few other annotated matches can be found there as well. Also, if
you haven't already, check out the annotated matches on the Backgammon
by the Bay page (http://www.backgammon.org/bgbb/). I've found all of
these very instructive and highly recommend them.

Hope this helps.

Dean
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To respond via email, replace "USERNAME" with "demiga" in my address.

Michael Strato

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Jan 5, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/5/00
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Hi Alan,

The most comprehensive list of books on backgammon that I have found was at
Art Grater's Backgammon Portal:
http://www.back-gammon.com/biblio.html

In the book "Backgammon The Cruelest Game-The Art of Winning by Barclay
Cooke & Jon Bradshaw, Chapter 12
is entitled "Three Great Games" and it mentions that these were actual games
played between some of the "best" players in that time but I don't see a
mention to the names of the players. Maybe Joe Dwek was one of them. All the
rolls and moves are noted in the text (with some board positions
illustrated) and the moves are also commented on.

On the back cover, at the top of the list of great players that commented on
the values of this book, Joe Dwek says, "A must. All backgammon players,
from the complete beginner to the most accomplished grandmaster, will learn
something from it. I certainly did."

I certainly did too, thanks Joe.

Michael Strato
Editor
GammonVillage

Backgammon The Cruelest Game Copyright 1974 by Barclay Cooke and Jon
Bradshaw
ISBN number- 0-394-48812-1

VSG <vsg...@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:84vuvh$d91$1...@news00.btx.dtag.de...

Walter Trice

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Jan 6, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/6/00
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In addition to the Woolsey/Heinrich MatchQiz (some available in book form)
there are:

Robertie's "Reno '86" -- probably the best match book ever, and Robertie's
best book. Bill's first book was also a match annotation: "Lee Genud vs. Joe
Dwek: The 1981 World Championship of Backgammon." The play and the analysis
is a bit old at this point, but still worth some study.

The "Costa Rica '93/'94" books -- very thorough/accurate analysis &
reasonably well written. A brand new book by the same authors (Ortega &
Kleinman) has just come out: "Jerry Grandell: His Most Important Matches". I
haven't seen it, but I don't doubt that it sustains the quality of the Costa
Rica books.

Roy Friedman's "World Class Backgammon" -- Roy has some ideas you won't find
anywhere else, especially in regards to tailoring checker play to match
score.

Kent Goulding's "Backgammon with the Champions" series -- long out of print,
hard to find, and a bit outdated, but Kent gives you great insight into how
the experts think.

Danny Kleinman's books -- most contain an annotated match or 2. In spite of
the fact that Kleinman never was a great player and there are a fair number
of errors in his analyses, his explanations of the tactical nuances of
checker play are outstanding.

Someone mentioned Barclay Cooke's "Championship Backgammon" -- don't bother.
Cooke was a hopeless player and his books are riddled with major
misconceptions about backgammon strategy. Historical interest only.

For an ambitious intermediate, I'd recommend Goulding first, then Robertie,
then Woolsey/Heinrich, then the Ortega (Costa Rica) books, with the others
as 'extra credit' supplements.

-- Walter Trice


dmg wrote in message <38748d36...@news.mindspring.com>...


>On Wed, 5 Jan 2000 18:27:58 +0100, "VSG" <vsg...@t-online.de> wrote:
>

>|I'm the proud owner of several bg books. Magriel's "backgammon"; Roberties
>|"..for beginners",".. for serious players" and "Advanced Backgammon Vol.1"
and
>|Kit woolseys "New ideas in backgammon."
>|
>|I'm now at a stage where I need to go deeper into a top players thought
>|processes and was wondering if there are any good annotated matches in
book form
>|rather than isolated position books. Ideal would be a book full of reasons
why a
>|move is made. I believe there is a book with a Joe Dwek match or something
like
>|that.Can anyone recommend a book of this kind for a strongish
intermediate?
>|
>|regards
>|
>|Alan
>

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