|
Wind Assisted is a collection of
approximately 150 of Chris Bray’s weekly backgammon articles from
the Independent on Saturday newspaper.
It is the third such compilation of articles following on from
Chris’s previous two anthologies, ‘What Colour is the Wind?’ and
‘Second Wind’.
Wind Assisted contains all of Chris’s articles from 2007 to 2009
inclusive as well as bonus material in the form of two quizzes,
rollout data for all of the articles and an extensive and
well-researched bibliography.
Wind Assisted contains over 100 checker-play problems encompassing
a broad range of thorny topics including breaking the anchor,
bearing in against resistance, connectivity in blitzes, holding
games, pay-now pay-later problems and many more.
Many articles cover doubling decisions focussing not just on money
play but also on match-play and on-line play with table limits. In
most positions the psychology of the cube is explored as well as
the roll-out result.
Chris’s great strength is his ability to write about backgammon in
an entertaining and engaging way.
Wind Assisted reintroduces us to many of the characters in Chris’s
semi-fictional chouette including Barry Bigplay, Quentin Quickcube,
the Enigmatic Englishman, the Dowager Duchess and Cautious
Cuthbert. These characters not only convey the atmosphere and
excitement that makes chouettes so compelling but they also
elucidate many of the backgammon concepts peculiar to this form of
play.
Chris teaches us by entertaining us.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chris’s homages. Holmes and
Watson make a welcome return in this collection. We are also
treated to a double appearance by Jeeves and Wooster. In the first
encounter our superior butler finds himself explaining to his
employer why Bertram’s seemingly safe bear-in play against Oofy
Prosser’s ace-point anchor was, in fact, a blunder. PG Wodehouse
was one of the finest wordsmiths that the English language has
ever seen. That Chris can mimic his style while schooling us in
backgammon technique is powerful testament to the strength of Wind
Assisted’s prose.
Wind Assisted has to serve many audiences – and for the most part
it is successful. Beginners will find a series of articles
dedicated to the basics of the game. More advanced readers will
benefit from the myriad of challenging problems and sound
exposition of candidate plays, strategy and tactics. Expert
players have access to 360-game, 3-ply, variance-reduced rollouts
for each of the problems and good signposting throughout the book
to more in-depth external analysis and resources.
Wind Assisted is a book that you can dip in and out of. However
reading through it chronologically gives a fascinating insight
into the development of the backgammon sub-culture. In the pages
of Wind Assisted we have a first-hand account of the birth of the
World Series of Backgammon and the London League, the continued
growth and success of Backgammon in London, the rise and fall of
the Backgammon Million and the week-long carnival of backgammon
that is the annual World Championships in Monte Carlo. Chris
breathes life into the technical analysis of positions from these
events by rooting each problem in the social and historical
context of the players and the tournament. This makes for a much
more three dimensional reading experience than with a purely
theoretical backgammon book.
I have only two very minor criticisms of Wind Assisted.
First, these articles originally appeared in the ‘Independent on
Saturday’ where Chris is kept to a strict word limit. Many times,
particularly in some of the very difficult positions that are
showcased, I wished that Chris had another couple of thousand
words with which to enlighten us further. A paragraph or two is
simply not enough to do justice to the range of complexities
exhibited by some of the problems in Wind Assisted.
The second criticism is of the cover art which looks like it was
produced by an aesthetically-challenged toddler dosed up on Sodium
Benzoate and let loose on PaintShop. Apparently it was done by a
Mr Richard Biddle and a Mr Michael Main. I don’t think that I need
to say any more on this topic. (Editor: What? How dare you
Williams! The fact that I have not edited this out proves that we
believe in free speech. Even so please expect to hear from our
solicitors forthwith! lol)
Wind Assisted is available on
Lulu for £22.50. This is extremely good value for a backgammon
book of this quality and range of appeal. I would highly recommend
it. |
