Any of these books worth having?

Daniel Racicot

unread,

May 2, 1994, 4:33:18 PM5/2/94

to

I was recently in a used bookstore in the suburbs and found many books
on backgammon, unfortunately I didn't have a chance to look them over.

So I'm hoping someone will tell me if it's worth the 40 minute bus ride
to go back there. These are thee books:

Holland: Better Backgammon
Jacobi and Crawford: Backgammon Book
Walter Gibson: Backgammon
James and Mary Jacobi: Book of backgammon
and 2 others that I am suspicious of:
bg for blood and bg for profit (I didn't write these on my list so these
may not be the actual titles)

Are any of these books worth having? I don't think I'm ready to take on
Robertie or the other big one right now. I just want to improve my game
and win a few bucks off my friends.

thanks a million
Daniel nosig Racicot
--

Kit Woolsey

unread,

May 2, 1994, 9:06:50 PM5/2/94

to

Daniel Racicot (ak...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) wrote:

: I was recently in a used bookstore in the suburbs and found many books

: on backgammon, unfortunately I didn't have a chance to look them over.

: So I'm hoping someone will tell me if it's worth the 40 minute bus ride
: to go back there. These are thee books:

: Holland: Better Backgammon

Pretty good, as I remember, but somewhat outdated by today's standards.

: Jacoby and Crawford: Backgammon Book

Very good, though quite old. If you can't get Magriel's book, then I
think this is the best introductory book you will find.

: Walter Gibson: Backgammon

As I remember, nothing special -- probably a lot of inaccuracies.

: James and Mary Jacoby: Book of backgammon

Just so-so

: and 2 others that I am suspicious of:

: bg for blood and bg for profit (I didn't write these on my list so these
: may not be the actual titles)

bg for blood -- total garbage for the most part.

bg for profit -- quite good, though somewhat advanced (assuming this is
by Dwek)

: Are any of these books worth having? I don't think I'm ready to take on

: Robertie or the other big one right now. I just want to improve my game
: and win a few bucks off my friends.

btw, I think you are better off taking on Robertie et al. Even if there
are a lot of advanced concepts, you might as well start out gettting
things correct rather than learning a bunch of incorrect concepts which
you will later have to unlearn.

Kit

: thanks a million
: Daniel nosig Racicot
: --

Durf Freund

unread,

May 2, 1994, 10:50:16 PM5/2/94

to

: bg for blood -- total garbage for the most part.

Kit here expresses a popular and largely correct view. Becker goes way
overboard in his espousal of the backgame. However, modern backgammon
theory has been skewed by blind reliance on computer programs -- one
promising, though still unperfected and quite over-rated, the other
entirely mediocre. There is enough truth in "Backgammon for Blood" to
make any perceptive human a more dangerous player than TD-Gammon, IMO.

Durf

Igor Sheyn

unread,

May 3, 1994, 4:45:47 PM5/3/94

to

Durf Freund (du...@netcom.com) wrote:

: : bg for blood -- total garbage for the most part.

: Durf

Wonder if u ever played TD. It's an incredibly strong program. I
personally feeel against it like against a stone wall. Even though it
has flaws in technical play ( uncharacteristical for non-neural
programs ), non many experts can compete with it in positional
assessment of positions. And people with "BG for blood" school will
not be dangerous even for a solid novice, who started his game
exploration by learning CORRECT concepts. This is the only time I take
part in "BG for blood" discussion. It's not worth wasting time. BTW, I
heard the identity of the author is unknown, some1 mentioned Becker is
a pseudoname. This is the only detail which I'd be interested hearing
about in this thread.

Igor