|
Backgammon To Win
by Chris Bray (New Holland, 2007, £9.99) is the best modern
introduction to backgammon for complete beginners, intermediates
who seek to complement some playing experience with an insight
into backgammon theory, and the surprisingly many people who have
enjoyed backgammon for years without being aware that a little
study can much improve their game.
This is not an impartial assessment as I advised Chris in the
writing of the book and made a few suggestions which he took on
board. But let me justify my opinion.
Firstly New Holland are a large publishing house and Backgammon To
Win is physically a very slick production. The text is
attractively laid out, two colours (red and black) are used for
the many diagrams and to the best of my knowledge this is the only
backgammon book to have a comprehensive index. (The index is very
useful and shows the skill of a professional indexer. Neither
Chris nor I could have produced it to the same standard.) And the
text is (almost ?) error-free for which I think Chris will allow
me to take some credit.
Secondly the only part of the book which is not original is that
explaining the rules of the game. The rest provides a clear
overview of the vast amount of new understanding of backgammon
which has arrived in the last thirty years, starting with Magriel
and Kleinman from the pre-bot era and of course including what we
have learned from the bots.
Chris summarises our current understanding of the best ways to
play the opening rolls in order to address three objectives: make
new points, mobilise the back checkers and unstack heavy points.
He does not tackle opening responses but much of that topic
remains on the frontiers of research.
The chapter on basic skills covers elementary dice probabilities
and their application in hitting, making points, duplication and
diversification. The three chapters on doubling are an excellent
summary of modern theory, illustrated with non-contact races, end
game bear-offs and contact positions. They cover the “25% take
rule”; doubling and redoubling windows; the power of cube
ownership; taking gammons into account; assessing a position in
terms of race, position and threat; volatility and risk of losing
your market if you delay a double; Woolsey’s Law (always double if
you don’t know whether it is a take); exploiting opponents who
drop too quickly; playing on for the gammon instead of doubling
your opponent out; beavers and raccoons; and settlements.
Chris emphasises the importance of pattern recognition in becoming
a good player. The next chapter gives a short introduction to
recognising middle game positions and how to play them, including
doubling. These positions are races, mutual holding, high anchor,
low anchor, blitz, prime versus prime, back game, scrambles and
saving the gammon. Many examples are provided. A scramble is when
you are trying to get a loose checker home and Chris notes that
you are often more likely to succeed than may be apparent. In this
position White is technically not strong enough to redouble but in
practice he should double as many Black players will drop !
|
