Backgammon books...choosing the good ones
Tommy
it to be excellent. Now i need more, but i'm not sure which book to go to
next. Some one please help. I need a book that will help me correctly
evaluate when to double, when to take doubles, exact probabilities or
recurring situations like race-offs and elaborate on many of the important
issues that Robertie covers in his book.
I have been trying to decide between Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's book,
New Ideas in Backgammon; Robertie's books 501 Essential Backgammon Problems
and Advanced Backgammon V I and II; and Paul Magriel's book Backgammon from
1985.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Tommy
Webby
> I have been trying to decide between Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's book,
>New Ideas in Backgammon; Robertie's books 501 Essential Backgammon Problems
>and Advanced Backgammon V I and II; and Paul Magriel's book Backgammon from
>1985.
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
>Thank You
>Tommy
All of the above :-)
Seriously though, of that list the only book I don't have is Roberties
"Advanced backgammon vol 2." .oO(Are you listening Santa :)
My order of purchase was Robertie serious players, Backgammon (Magriel), New
Ideas in Backgammon (Kit Woolsey), Roberties Advanced Backgammon Vol 1. And
I'm just about through Roberties "501 essential backgamm positions "(btw.
anyone rolled them out yet? I'm not sure if the author did before
publication)
Another book worth considering I think is How to win tournament backgammon
(?) by Kit Woolsey. Lots of cube strategy for match play apparently. (Did I
already mention it's Cristmas soon? :-)
All the books listed do delve into cube handling. (less so Magriels
Backgammon, but a must have anyway imo.) Roberties 501 has many cube
problems which are well explained. Paul Lamfords "Improve your game" is well
worth the paltry 5$ it costs as well (I loved the PRAT anagram.)
Hope that helps
Alan Webb
Webby's Backgammon Site
http://www.isg-vsg.de/backgammon/BGHome.htm
(Not much cube handling in my site but a fair bit on the checker play
basics.)
Bob Stringer
wrote:
> I bought Bill Robertie's book, Backgammon For Serious Players, and I found
>it to be excellent. Now i need more, but i'm not sure which book to go to
>next. Some one please help. I need a book that will help me correctly
>evaluate when to double, when to take doubles, exact probabilities or
>recurring situations like race-offs and elaborate on many of the important
>issues that Robertie covers in his book.
>
> I have been trying to decide between Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's book,
>New Ideas in Backgammon; Robertie's books 501 Essential Backgammon Problems
>and Advanced Backgammon V I and II; and Paul Magriel's book Backgammon from
>1985.
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
They're pricey, but Kit Woolsey's MatchQiz disks (which I
recommend in DOS -- on floppies, rather than in Snowie mode) are
terrific. Aside from the education, it's simply fun to re-play
some very fine games and listen to what Kit has to say about them.
Doesn't address your specific question about doubles, recurring
situations, etc. What they do show is how a game evolves and how
a great player thinks about it. Similar to Kit's annotations at
GammOnLine. So, if you don't want to pay a lot, subscribe to GOL
and view the annotated monthly matches, and well as the continuing
online match.
Bob Stringer
In order to reply by e-mail, please replace
"NotHere" with "spamcop" in my address
SJ Baedke
wrote:
<snip>
>My order of purchase was Robertie serious players, Backgammon (Magriel), New
>Ideas in Backgammon (Kit Woolsey), Roberties Advanced Backgammon Vol 1. And
>I'm just about through Roberties "501 essential backgamm positions "(btw.
>anyone rolled them out yet? I'm not sure if the author did before
>publication)
>
Erik M Sørensen posted this to the group 5/30/2000.
--------
Right, here's the Snowie 3-ply evaluation of the equitydifference in
its own favour. Let me hear from anybody that has made any intensive
rollouts on the positions.
Again let me point out that this is only a temporary list.
Problem no. Correct move Equity-diff
1 11 23 0,014
3 14 0,003
4 9 5* 0,004
7 23 11 0,003
23 5-p 3-p 0,097
24 5 7 18-p 0,003
32 21* 15 0,001
33 8 21 0,028
36 22 1* 0,040
42 13 4* 0,006
50 20 5* 0,035
53 11 3-p 0,064
64 12* 4 0,004
67 24* 1-p 11 0,005
74 8-p 7-p 0,005
75 1-p 23 7 0,066
83 22 7 0,007
101 7 8 0,054
102 22 23 0,012
103 3-p 5-p 0,014
107 8 0,025
129 5*10* 0,016
134 12 0,045
146 ND/T 0,014
148 ND/T 0,018
175 D/T 0,199
181 D/T 0,091
192 23* 8 0,004
-------
Check out Erik's site at http://hjem.get2net.dk/mommark/ for Snowie
opinion of positions 196 through 501. Click on link 501-files.
steve
Webby
Douglas Zare
> I bought Bill Robertie's book, Backgammon For Serious Players, and I found
> it to be excellent. Now i need more, but i'm not sure which book to go to
> next. Some one please help. I need a book that will help me correctly
> evaluate when to double, when to take doubles, exact probabilities or
> recurring situations like race-offs and elaborate on many of the important
> issues that Robertie covers in his book.
>
> I have been trying to decide between Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's book,
> New Ideas in Backgammon; Robertie's books 501 Essential Backgammon Problems
> and Advanced Backgammon V I and II; and Paul Magriel's book Backgammon from
> 1985.
I agree with what others have said, but I would like to point out that if the
only other backgammon book you have read is _Backgammon for Serious Players_
then the choices you mention are all possibilities except for the first one.
_New Ideas in Backgammon_ is great for someone who already knows the things you
say you would like to learn plus a lot more, but it assumes that you already
know what the usual theory is. It shows you how experts can make "mistakes" in
certain positions that computer programs get right. However, I would first
worry about making gross blunders by not knowing the standard ideas.
Douglas Zare