New Player Needs Help
Marcia Karen
Been playing bg about six months, and love it!
However, i don't seem to be playing WELL...
my rating on FIBS was once 1600, now down
below 1500, and not doing too well in local
tournaments.
What should i add to my current training which includes:
reading and playing out stuff from Magriel
playing almost weekly in local tourneys
playing several times a week on FIBS
some tutalage from an expert
i'd also appreciate people sending me notations
of interesting matches or positions for me to study
or play out at home.
Thanx, and be well,
marcia
William C. Bitting
[cut]
: Been playing bg about six months, and love it!
: my rating on FIBS was once 1600, now down
: below 1500, and not doing too well in local
: tournaments.
1)..not to worry .. ;) ..a couple of things here. I think the quality
of backgammon on FIBS is very high and perhaps stronger than it was 6 mos
to a year ago. FIBS is a great place to learn and I think were all doing
that. Therefore, just to maintain one's rating, one has to get better.
2) I've noted that mloner has gone through 100 to 150 point swings
in its rating. It seems to me at one juncture it was in the mid 2000's
and dropped to the mid 1800's. Kitwoolsey went from over 2000 to perhaps
just under 1800, and a little over a year later is back over 2000. He
told me a year ago that it is the nature of a dice game, and getting, or
not getting, those timely rolls in combination with dice of your
opponent, that accounts for much of this.
While not true of the robots, I think many of us humans also 'get out of
sync' when in the midst of a loosing streak. Perhaps we take too many
doubles, only to find ourselves gammoned!! ..ick. I've even found myself
at some match scores and in certain situations, particularly when my
chance for a sound backgame is unlikely, shifting the focus of my play to
avoid being gammoned - I mentally count the game as a "WIN" when
successful. I try to particularly watch what my focus is after taking a
double - go after the win OR shift focus to avoiding the big G! It never
occurred to me before that sometimes playing to avoid to gammon is a
great idea!
One of the top players for many years, having seen me go from 1680 to
under 1540, left me a message. He said he really didn't know what to
suggest but was wondering if I was trying to do too much with my play
(like leaving unnecessary blots - a bad habit to regularly leave blots -
I note mloner and jellyfish don't do this!) - or taking too many doubles.
I've worked on both of these ideas. Sometimes being successful in winning
after a bad take, or winning after a bad double, teaches us the wrong
lesson. Next thing you know, we're both taking and doubling badly.
I also must say while recently watching a slumping friend, like over a 100
points in a month, who was playing mloner, I saw him miss a late game
double where mloner would have dropped. A roll later, mloner threw a 2-5,
entering on the 23 - the only opening in the board - AND hitting a blot on
18, which my friend unnecessarily placed there just the roll before, with
the last man he had to get home! When I asked him why he hadn't doubled,
he pointed to the 52 and said that's why. However, he could have "cashed",
but instead rolled a 4-2, which he moved from his midpoint to his bar point -
he had other 2's to play! That put him behind 0-1 in a five pointer. I
watched the rest of the match, which mloner won only with the aid of
great fortune in the 2-away, 2-away game. However, instead of 3-3, the
score should have been 4-2, with my friend leading the match in the
Crawford game. Well, there you have hit ..the ultimate recipe for a
slump. Take everything, double very conservatively. Heck, a 100 points in
a month is just a start. .. :)
So, I rate weak cube handling as one of the primary differences between
1700+ players and 1600- players.
3) Don't forget that in the first 400 experience points, there is a
multiplier on the rating change, which starts at 5 and declines to 1 at
400. So some success early can lead to some great ratings. Going from
1500 to 1600 after 400 experience points is a much slower proposition.
Having reached 1680, that to me is now my 'true rating', which
conveniently overlooks the 99% of the time that my rating has been under
that mark ..you know ..it's just that my opponents have had all the luck
lately. .. :)
4) The more one plays, the more certainly one is to experience one
of those 'unaccountable' slumps. Just when you're sure you're at your
best ..bang .. there go 100 rating points. Somehow we rational beings
struggle with that outcome, as well as with our backgammon! Those 100
points seem to go in a hurry and come back 'never' - also a mind bender.
: What should i add to my current training which includes:
: reading and playing out stuff from Magriel
: playing almost weekly in local tourneys
: playing several times a week on FIBS
: some tutalage from an expert
There are just some outstanding aids free on the internet! I'll mention
a few of them that come to mind. They are all discussed in the FAQ.
1) The Woolsey / Bagai a match, played in the summer of 1994 I think, and
done expressly for the purpose of helping FIBSster's gain an insight into
how the game is played and thought about at the expert level. Virtually
every move is annotated, not only by Kit and Jeremy, but also by
TD-Gammon (i.e. Gerry Tesauro using the output from TD-Gammon looking at
the same positions!). This is a gem and a must - 7 games. Files can be
ftp'd from Stephen Turner's web page -
http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/backgammon/main.html. Look under
matches. The ascii version, which I have, can be "read" in any
wordprocessor or spreadsheet, and it comes complete with drawn boards for
every move so you don't even have to get out your backgammon set!
I think there is a seconded annotated match there, complete with boards,
between Casey Forrest and Snoopy. These are great learning aids!
Note!: you have to use a monospaced font on your sreadsheet/wordprocessor
or the boards will be not show up 'square'.
2) Kit Woolsey has made available a free demo version of his Matchquiz, a
DOS program the last I knew, along with a Paul Magriel match from some
major tournament. It is fully annotated by Kit. Recently I noted the
lastest 6 (?) championship matches from recent backgammon events is
available commercially. I understand they are outstanding. $100 I think.
Check the FAQ on how to get this demo. I accomplished this task, and I
flunked "computer use for dummies", so it can't be that hard. .. :)
3)Also check the FAQ for Walter Trice's BQDEMO - Bearoff Quizmaster - a
really slick DOS program - with color no less - which gives you the
winning probabities from any 3 men bearoff positions. You can enter
positions, or just allow the program to "quiz" you - double/take?
double/drop ? no double/take ? no double/beaver, and from cube in the
middle, you hold cube, opponent holds cube situations. It also gives CWP,
cubeless winning percentages. A fairly inexpensive version is available
through Carol Joy Cole which will handle a lot more checkers in the
analysis/quiz.
4)Read the FAQ - there is a lot more there!
5)"printmaster", also available at Stephen Turner's web site, is a slick
program for converting 'oldmoves' lists from FIBS to drawn boards. I
recently downloaded this to my directory on the SUN workstation at my ISP
(say, maybe I can pass that dummies course now with lingo like this!), and
now have learned how to upload 'oldmoves' lists, 'capture' the drawn
boards and read them in a spreadsheet or wordprocessor in my own
computer! Let see, with 2, 100 match series lists of 'oldmoves' from 792
games available at Mark Damish's ftp site, that should be enought
additional study material to last for ..well ..last forever! And, this
is a good way to review some of one's own matches. Actually, I seem to
always look at my 'great wins' and somehow never have an 'oldmoves' list
of my follies - this is probably ..well, .. folly.
7) And just when I'm learning not to leave to many blots around, I notice
jellyfish is aways hitting loose in his home board. After his opponent
splits an opening 62, here comes jellyfish playing a 52, 24-22 6-1* !.
This idea must be catching on ..I'm even noticing that mloner does this,
although not as frequently. And some of my opponents on FIBS do this in
the extreme and beat me regularly. What's the matter with them ..don't
they know how to play this game!!? If they weren't so darn lucky - I
never seem to hit them ..my dice are so bad! (..that's another tip .. it
helps to whine a bit .. ;) ), So don't leave blots but hit loose!
Well, I'd like to make this a 'top ten' list, but this will probably get
your rating all the way to .. say 1300 .. before you chuck it all and
start play playing with creativity, judgemant, daring and enthusiasm, and
soar well past 1600! Have fun! If it's not working, hit loose ..that's a
real blast ..and always works for my opponent. ..oh yes, ..don't forget
to whine .. :)
: i'd also appreciate people sending me notations
: of interesting matches or positions for me to study
: or play out at home.
You won't need more ..this is too much by twice. .. :)
: Thanx, and be well,
: marcia
Good Dice! ..(that's actually step 8) ...wcb on FIBS
Albert Steg
Karen) wrote:
> What should i add to my current training which includes:
> reading and playing out stuff from Magriel
> playing almost weekly in local tourneys
> playing several times a week on FIBS
> some tutalage from an expert
All those things sound great. Once you have thoroughly digested the
concepts in Magriel you should buy some more current, more advanced books
such as Robertie's _Advanced Backgammon_.
More importantly, though, is to play as much face-to-face $ backgammon as
you can at stakes you can afford and with a field of players which
includes some who are more advanced than you are.
Reading is good, lessons are fine, tournaments are fun, but there's no
substitue for long long sessions of bg where you care about the outcome
(hence the $) and during which you get to develop a feel for the kinds of
situations that come up. Only then will the concepts in the books take
hold in your mind.
FIBS, wonderful as it is, is too slow to be a good investment of time if
you have the option of playing over a real table.
Chouettes are excellent learning expereinces because of the consultation
that can go on, depending on your rules.
Play for a stake at which it's financially annoying to lose 40 points in
an evening, but not financially distressing.
Albert