QUIZ 33 - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

by Chris Bray

Independent Christmas Quiz 2009



Saturday Magazine

(Published in conjunction with The Independent on Saturday 19th December 2008)

 

Welcome once again to the Independent Christmas Quiz kindly hosted by Mike Main at Backgammon in London. This should provide you with the ideal excuse to hide in your study, avoid the washing-up duties and possibly get you away from playing lesser board games with annoying aunts and uncles.

This quiz should see you through the Christmas holiday and hopefully beyond as it’s not that easy. I was impressed when last year’s quiz produced three perfectly correct results. My old maths master, Hywel Morgan, always used to say that no-one should ever score 100% in his tests and I feel the same way about my backgammon quizzes. I have a feeling that I won’t succeed but I will keep trying.

There are twelve questions to match the twelve days of Christmas. There are 30 points for each question and therefore a perfect score would be 360 points (actually 370 because there is a bonus question). Even if you can’t answer all the questions it could well be worth sending in your entry as non-perfect scores could well take the prizes.

Answers must be submitted to me at chris.bray@btconnect.com no later than Saturday 2nd January 2010 with winners being announced the following week.

There are three prizes each of which can be taken in one of four ways:

1) A copy of my new book “Wind Assisted” which will be published in February or March 2010
2) As a £25 credit at Chris Ternel’s excellent www.bgshop.com
3) As a £25 credit towards Backgammon Live in London 2010 entry fees
4) As a 90 minute backgammon lesson with myself.

As with all competitions the judge’s decision is final. The only clue I will give you before you set out is that it helps to be well-read in terms of backgammon bibliography and if you have attended my seminars and read my books over the years that might prove useful as well.
 

Here are the answers to what was a very difficult Christmas Quiz:

Question 1 (30 Points)

A position from backgammon history: black is on roll. Who were the players? What was the score and what happened next?
 

Answer 1

This position occurred in the first World Cup Final between Joe Sylvester (black) and Ray Glazer (white) in 1988. Sylvester trailed 15-23 in match to 41 points!

After 8 minutes thought Sylvester redoubled to 8. Glazer accpeted. Sylvester rolled a non-double, Glazer rolled 43, both the players then rolled non-doubles and the match was tied at 23-23.

At the time it was thought that this was only a redouble because of the match score but actually it is a perfectly correct redouble for money.

Question 2 (30 Points)

Question 3 (30 Points)

Name the player. Who are these three players (10 points each)?
 

B)

C)
 

Answer 3

a) Joe Dwek
b) Oswald Jacoby
c) Gaby Horowitz

Question 4 (30 Points)

Name the book which contains the first mention of the concept of beavering.
 

Answer 4

“The Backgammon Book” by Crawford and Jacoby (1970)

Question 5 (30 Points)

Question 6 (30 Points)

Name a 1968 song and the band that performed it that contains the word “backgammon”.
 

Answer 6

“Lather” by Jefferson Airplane.

Question 7 (40 Points)

Name the Celebrity. Who are these celebrities either playing or connected in some way to our favourite game (10 points each)?
 

Answer 7

a) Grand Duke Dmitri (sometimes credited with inventing the doubling cube) and Coco Chanel.
b) Zeppo and Harpo Marx.
c) J.Edgar Hoover.

Question 8 (30 Points)

During 2009 SS & VL played a game of backgammon for the highest recorded stakes. What were the players’ full names and what was the outcome?
 

Answer 8

There is no stake higher than a human life. The full story is as follows:

Sergei Smirnitsky was arrested in south Moscow on murder charges after reportedly knocking on his neighbour’s door to ask him to help drag a corpse from his eighth-floor flat to the street. The shocked neighbour called police instead.

The story began when Smirnitsky and his victim-to-be, 23-year-old Vasily Lobozov, agreed to share a taxi. During the ride, Smirnitsky invited his new acquaintance to come to his flat, and Lobozov agreed.

Upon their arrival, Lobozov noticed and remarked upon a backgammon set sitting on the shelf.

“I made that in the labour camp,” said Smirnitsky, who had earlier served time for robbery. “It took me years.”

“Shall we play a game?” his guest replied.

Smirnitsky, who was reportedly in a dark mood following the recent death of his brother, then informed his guest that, “With that backgammon set you can only play for dough.”

When Lobozov replied that he had no money, his host answered: “Then stake your life.”

Lobozov, who presumably didn’t take the proposal seriously, agreed, and the two men sat down to play. Fifteen minutes later, after Smirnitsky had beaten his young opponent, he went into the kitchen, chose a knife, and plunged it five times into Lobozov’s neck.

Question 9 (30 Points)

Who said of doubling: “As an added caution concerning premature doubles, it should be noted that as a game of Backgammon progresses, the chances for a decisive shift in luck grow slighter. Therefore a player who redoubles because he has gained the advantageous position runs less chance of a disastrous turning of the tables than the player who doubles early in the game.”
 

Answer 9

Lelia Hattersley in her 1930 book “How to Play the New Backgammon”.

Question 10 (30 Points)

“Good evening, Holmes. You always pride yourself on estimating winning chances in unusual positions. I had this position as black against Professor Moriarty at The Diogenes last night. What do you think my winning chances are?”

“Unusual, if not to say unique, my dear Watson. I would say that black’s winning chances are about X%, give or take a percentage point.”

“Remarkably accurate, Holmes.”

“But I see the Professor has been up to his old tricks again. Actually I think your winning chances should have been nearer to Y%.”

“Good Lord, Holmes – I do believe you’re right.”

What had Homes spotted and what are the values of X and Y?
 

Answer 10

This is an impossible position as what was white’s last move? If the professor entered the third checker on black’s 6-pt then he must have rolled another number with it. In all likelihood that was a ‘1’ but the professor, being a cheat, decided not to play the ‘1’ and give himself some extra winning chances.

In the original position Watson’s winning chances (X) were 31% (credit given for 29-33%). With white’s third man on the black’s 6-pt moved to the bar-point Watson’s winning chances (Y) were 45% (credit given for 43 – 47%).

NOTE: To do the analysis of this position I used ExtremeGammon. At the last minute I decided to do a cross-check using Snowie. Unfortunately the two bots don’t agree! Given my analysis of complex positions using the two bots I suspect XG plays this better than Snowie and that Snowie 5 (if it ever arrives) will agree with XG.

However, I realise that Snowie is more commonly used than XG and so I am increasing the range of acceptable answers to this question:

X can be in the range 24-33%
Y can be in the range 40-47%

gnubg comes between Snowie and XG.

Question 11 (30 Points)

A second position from history: Black is on roll. Who were the players, what was the match score and what happened next?
 

Answer 11

This is Joe Dwek (black) vs. Lee Genud (white), World Championship Final at Monte Carlo in 1981. Dwek trailed 19-23 in a match to 25 points. Dwek rolled 21 and played 15/12 instead of slotting 9/6 (which was the correct play). Genud fanned and Dwek rolled 22 which would have covered had he slotted. He slotted next turn but Genud entered with a hit and went on to win the game and the title. Possible the most expensive non-slot in history!

Question 12 (30 Points)

Name the painting. What are the names of both the painting and the painter of these famous backgammon pictures (10 points each)?
 

Answer 12

A) “The Property of a Lady” by Sebastiaan Vrancx
B) “The Four Times of Day: Afternoon” by Nicolas Lancret
C) “Americana” by Charles Scheeler