Early 6/5 w/ split backmen

[John B Kelly]

If I've split my backmen early on, then roll 6/5, should I run the
one on 24 pt to 13, or should I point on my opponent's 7 point? Does it
matter if my opponent has made one of his board points, say the 5 or 4,
and maybe has a builder coming down (say his 10 or 11 point)? My problem
with the 7 is it often seems hard to extricate the men later. Of course
the problem with running one man is that the one left on the 23 point
becomes vulnerable.
In general (is there a general?), is it better to make an early
anchor on your opponent's 5 or 7 point?
Also, does anyone know about "BG Master Games", by Chuck Papazian
and Bill Kennedy? It's sold thru Gammon Press ($20), looks interesting,
but I've never seen it mentioned as a book to get (or avoid, for that
matter).

Thanks.

--
John Bryan Kelly jbr...@world.std.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Stephen Turner]

I wrote:
>
> Check out http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/backgammon/main.html#Books

By the way, I would LOVE more book reviews, complimentary or critical, from
experts, intermediates or beginners. Please?

--
Stephen R. E. Turner
Stochastic Networks Group, Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge
e-mail: sr...@cam.ac.uk WWW: http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/home.html
"I always keep one big file in case I run out of space." A colleague of mine

[Allen R. Adams]

In article <309746...@cam.ac.uk>, Stephen Turner <sr...@cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> I wrote:
> >
> > Check out http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/backgammon/main.html#Books
>
> By the way, I would LOVE more book reviews, complimentary or critical, from
> experts, intermediates or beginners. Please?
>
> --

Let me start by premising that I started playing backgammon for 'real'
earlier this year on FIBS, as my rating went from 1500 to 1290 to 1600.
Although purchasing the Robertie Advanced Backgammon Volumes 1 & 2 and
Woolsey's How To Play Tournament Backgammon has not improved my rating
much (lack of patience and concentration on my part I believe), they has
been enjoyable reading for the most part. Therefore, I would consider
myself a beginner-intermediate backgammon book reviewer.

As I said, I purchased the latest copies of Robertie's Advanced
Backgammon, both Volumes 1 & 2. They are very informative, although the
assumption stated by Robertie is that you have read some other backgammon
books as a supplemental. So there are things I am still not sure about in
order to reach a 1700+ level on FIBS, but the books are very good to read.

The Volumes are all backgammon situations, discussing either 1) Given a board
situation and die roll, what are the best moves (i.e. various plays are
discussed as to there merit); and/or 2) Given a board situation, is there
a 'double' action required before rolling, and if so, should the opponent
accept the double. There are occasional typos, but very few of them. I
have read both Volumes through once, and am more leisurely re-reading them
now and they are sinking in as to what to do.

One thing of note is that someone did a study which was posted on
rec.games.backgammon within the past 3 months, in which each of Robertie's
situations in Volume's 1 & 2 were 'posed' to the Jellyfish Backgammon
program, as well as a rollout performed on each. There are many instances
where the Jellyfish program and Robertie differ, and even additional
instances where a rollout disputes even Jellyfish and Robertie when they
agree. I have never seen Jellyfish, so I'll leave it's ability up to
others to decide if it is correct or not. Recent posts on this newsgroup
also indicate that rollouts can be inherently flawed.

I would recommend these books to beginners and intermediates. I have no
idea whether advanced folks would find them useful.

I also purchased Woolsey's How To Play Tournament Backgammon, which is
more along the lines of a white paper rather than a book (no offense
intended Kit :-) ). It is definitely for intermediate to advance players
to appreciate what it is conveying. Its purpose is to help folks
understand whether to offer/accept doubles, given particular match
scores. I would guess I understand 75% of what Kit is conveying, although
I have never used the information in any particular situation (maybe that
is why my rating is mid-1600's :-) ). It is more or less a statistical
view of what should be done with the doubling cube. I think its great
that Kit spends time trying to educate players, so I don't consider it a
waste of time and money.

Allen :-)

Allen on FIBS

--
Allen R Adams
allen...@trw.com
The expressed opinions are those of myself and not my company.