Handicapping
Laury Chizlett
matches (no cube, I doubled her once and she told me to get stuffed).
This is splendid thing to do over a glass or two of wine while the
dinner cooks, but the trouble is that I nearly always beat her. This is
mainly because I have been playing for 40+ years: she only learnt 6
months ago.
We will probably continue with this - neither of us minds - and she is
getting better with checker play, not stacking up too much, or killing
checkers; and it is likely that she will get as good at BG as she is at
Bridge - at which game I am glad I am her partner and not an opponent.
But the situation has made me thing of the following: does anyone know
of a handicapping system that gives the learner a chance of winning
(without leading the learner into bad practices) and the more
experienced player more of a challange? Like giving a pawn in Chess.
My set has 5 spare men. We could give one or more of these to her, which
should give her an advantage, maximizing her chances of priming and
blocking, but where could they go in the set-up? Would this harm the
process of learning? Is there an upper limit of added men, where it
would be a disadvantage?
Or could I take off one or more of -my- men, or move one or more men off
my mid-point and add them to my back runners?
Another approach, we actually tried early on (when she believed that
victory was governed only by the dice) was for her to play two double
sixes, and then carry on as before. We had a good, even game (which she
won).
Laury Chizlett
flash
<la...@trpdata.demon.co.uk> wrote:
_____________________________________________________
THE CORRECT WAY to Handicap is as follows:
Start at #1 below. If after awhile it is obvious that the starting
advantage is inadequate to level the playing field, proceed to #2, etc.
1.The weaker player gets to always roll first.
2.The weaker player gets to roll first and may play doubles.
3.The weaker player gets to roll first and can optionally re-roll if the
opening roll is not strong enough.
4.The weaker player starts all games with a good but not great opening
roll. I suggest 5-3
5.The weaker player starts all games with 4-2
6.The weaker player starts all games with 6-1
7.The weaker player starts all games with 3-1
Walter Swan
Suggestion 2) Play for stakes she is comfortable with. Like you will cook
when you lose.
She'll be whipping you in no time flat. <G>
flash wrote in message ...
Murat Kalinyaprak
>My set has 5 spare men. We could give one or more of these
>to her, which should give her an advantage, maximizing her
>chances of priming and blocking, but where could they go in
>the set-up? Would this harm the process of learning? Is
>there an upper limit of added men, where it would be a
>disadvantage?
Since you are solliciting opinions, here is mine:
I think altering the number of pieces would change
the game too far to be consistently useful for
learning; (depending on how the game proceeds, I
sometimes whish I had fewer pieces and other times
more pieces). Also, some/(most?) of the advantage
created in this way will reverse itself during the
bear-off, when you'll have fewer pieces and she'll
have more pieces to bear-off.
>Or could I take off one or more of -my- men, or move one or
>more men off my mid-point and add them to my back runners?
This is not a bad idea, because it would emulate
real-life situations where a few of your pieces
could get hit and sent back early in the game.
>Another approach, we actually tried early on (when she
>believed that victory was governed only by the dice) was
>for her to play two double sixes, and then carry on as
>before. We had a good, even game (which she won).
Actually, a more common/(better?) practice is for
one side to play doubles as regular rolls (i.e.
two times the numbers rolled, not four times) or
re-roll until you get non-doubles.
Also, you may want to let her go first in every
game. This gives one player the obvious advantage
of being one roll ahead of the other. Determining
who should go first by rolling dice for it is
based on pure luck and there is nothing to learn
from it anyway.
Enjoy...
MK
Us
what this moves does(covering up,blocking,etc).
Laury Chizlett wrote in message <1ahRgFAD...@trpdata.demon.co.uk>...
>Every night I play BG with my wife. We play three or four one-point
>matches (no cube, I doubled her once and she told me to get stuffed).
>This is splendid thing to do over a glass or two of wine while the
>dinner cooks, but the trouble is that I nearly always beat her. This is
>mainly because I have been playing for 40+ years: she only learnt 6
>months ago.
>
>We will probably continue with this - neither of us minds - and she is
>getting better with checker play, not stacking up too much, or killing
>checkers; and it is likely that she will get as good at BG as she is at
>Bridge - at which game I am glad I am her partner and not an opponent.
>
>But the situation has made me thing of the following: does anyone know
>of a handicapping system that gives the learner a chance of winning
>(without leading the learner into bad practices) and the more
>experienced player more of a challange? Like giving a pawn in Chess.
>
>
>Laury Chizlett
>
Laury Chizlett
<swa...@luckynumber.com> writes
>Suggestion 1) Move 1 of your 5 midpoint checkers back to one point.
>Suggestion 2) Play for stakes she is comfortable with. Like you will cook
>when you lose.
> She'll be whipping you in no time flat. <G>
>
>><la...@trpdata.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> matches (no cube, I doubled her once and she told me to get stuffed).
>>> This is splendid thing to do over a glass or two of wine while the
>>> dinner cooks, but the trouble is that I nearly always beat her. This is
>>> mainly because I have been playing for 40+ years: she only learnt 6
>>> months ago.
Thaks Flash, Walter & Murat, but no more advice please: last night she
gammond me three times.
-- ^ To Liverpool St
^ Station & City
Laury | ^ | 1.5 miles
________________________| |
TRP Ridley Rd Street Market |__
35 Colvestone Crescent __________________ _ | | Dalston
London / / | |__| Kingsland
E8 2LG / / |A10 | Station
________________/ / | |
Tel: 0171 923 0244 Colvestone Cres / | |
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35
Marina Smith
<la...@DELETEtrpdata.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Laury, I see from your map you are fairly near Stoke Newington - did
you know they have a backgammon night on Mondays (at least they used
to) at The Fox Reformed? It was one of the main London meets.
Marina / mas on fibs
>-- ^ To Liverpool St
> ^ Station & City
>Laury | ^ | 1.5 miles
> ________________________| |
>TRP Ridley Rd Street Market |__
>35 Colvestone Crescent __________________ _ | | Dalston
>London / / | |__| Kingsland
>E8 2LG / / |A10 | Station
> ________________/ / | |
>Tel: 0171 923 0244 Colvestone Cres / | |
>Fax: 0171 923 1471 ____________________/ | |
> 35
--
Marina Smith - Reading, UK. To email me, remove XX from my address.
Patti Beadles
she starts winning, make it a weaker roll.. maybe 42 then 61 then 53.
-Patti
--
Patti Beadles |
pat...@netcom.com/pat...@gammon.com |
http://www.gammon.com/ | If it wasn't for the last minute
or just yell, "Hey, Patti!" | I'd never get anything done!
Julian
>
>>My set has 5 spare men. We could give one or more of these
>>to her, which should give her an advantage, maximizing her
>>chances of priming and blocking, but where could they go in
>>the set-up? Would this harm the process of learning? Is
>>there an upper limit of added men, where it would be a
>>disadvantage?
>
Could you not play match play (first to n points for a pre-arranged n)
and award points head start as a handicap, rather than changing the game
itself? It would at the very least provide the advantage of learning the
game proper, not some artificial version.
--
Julian Hayward 'Booles' on FIBS jul...@ratbag.demon.co.uk
+44-1344-640656 http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/
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Jim Cochrane
doubles. Then opening roll but no play of doubles. By the time you are
ready for something less you should probably begin cube practice and
headstarts in match play as the handicap.
MJR
openning roll. This way, the weaker player is given an advantage but at
the same time is forced to consider all the different bad plays and pick
the worst...which atleast keeps them thinking.