With just under a year until the inaugural UK Backgammon Open, there is plenty of time to improve your game. Here are 5 things you can be doing between now and the UK Open to maximise your chances of winning it. In every example White is on roll.
1. Learn the opening moves and responses
It would be a shame to get to double match point in the final at the UK Open and not know how to play a simple 31.
Correct move: 24/21 8/7*
Reply charts such as this great one by Timothy Chow can be extremely useful. Be sure also to take a look at Phil Simborg’s Opening Ceremony video.
2. Learn a few reference positions.
A small number of reference positions can go a very long way.
If you know that the above position is a borderline take for money then the cube action for these positions is easy:
Double/Pass
Double/Take
Double/Take
Double/Pass
3. Learn some racing / bearoff formulae
Non-contact races / bearoffs come up a lot in backgammon – if you know how to handle the cube correctly in them then you will be at a considerable advantage.
a. Start with the Keith Count.
White’s pip count = 52
White’s adjustments: +4 (checkers on the ace) + 1 (checkers on the 2)
+1 (checkers on the 3) +1 (gap on the 4).
White’s adjusted count: 52 + 7 = 59
Black’s pip count = 63
Black’s adjustments: +2 (checkers on the ace)
Black’s adjusted count: 63 + 2 = 65
Take criteria: 59 plus one seventh = 59 + 8 = 67
67 – 65 = 2
So Double/Take
b. After mastering the Keith Count, move onto Trice’s Effective Pip Count.
White’s Effective Pip Count = 7n + 1 = 50
Black’s Effective Pip Count = 42 + 10 = 52
Double/Take
c. Then master Matussek’s bear off paper.
White’s Pip Count = 21
White’s Adjustments = 0.4 X 3 + 0.8 X 2 + 2 X 3 + 4.5 = 13.3
White’s EPC = 21 + 13.3 = 34.3
Black’s Pip Count = 26
Black’s Adjustments = 0.2 + 0.4 x 2 + 0.8 X 4 + 2 + 4.5 + 1 – 1 = 10.7
Black’s EPC = 26 + 10.7 = 36.7
Double/Close Pass
4. Study basic match play concepts and learn Neil’s numbers
Tournament backgammon is different to money backgammon. A basic grasp of the different strategies at different scores in a match is needed to play well in tournaments.
Kit Woolsey’s article on 5-point matches is a must-read for any serious backgammon student. The score makes a big difference to correct cube strategy.
The position above is a no double/take at 0 – 0 in a match to 5.
It is a double/take at 1 – 1 in a match to 5.
It is a double/pass if White is trailing 1 – 3 in a match to 5.
Neil Kazaross invented a simple system for memorising match equities. Kit Woolsey describes it here.
In the position below it is 0-0 in a match to 11 and White holds an 8-cube.
Black can pass the cube to be 8-0 down in a match to 11. Using Neil’s numbers we know that he will have 100 – ((8 X 5) + 50) = 10% winning chances if he does that. So Black needs to have more than 10% winning chances to take the cube. For Black to win White needs to roll a non-double and Black needs to roll a double. This happens 5/6 X 1/6 of the time or 5/36. 5/36 is greater than 10% so Black should take this cube.
5. Learn from your mistakes
Modern backgammon software allows us to recognise and learn from our mistakes in a way that was impossible 30 years ago. Playing against a computer opponent and then reviewing the match for errors is an excellent way to improve.
Gnu Backgammon is very strong and is free.
Extreme Gammon is very strong, is user-friendly and is reasonably priced.
Backgammon software shows us mistakes that we would otherwise have missed. It also allows us to make small changes to positions to understand our errors and to develop a better positional feel.
In the position above White played 10/9* 6/1*. This is a mistake. White should just have made the 5-point – 10/5 6/5.
In the position above a White checker from the 8-point has been moved to the 6-point. Now playing 10/9* 6/1* is correct by a lot. This is primarily because White now has a direct cover for the blot on the ace-point if Black misses.
The position above represents a more subtle variation to our original position. Now Black has more threatening structure and another blot. This makes attacking more pressing for White and 10/9* 6/1* is the correct move.
Summary
There is plenty of time to improve your backgammon game in advance of the UK Open in September 2014. Areas to focus on include:
- Learning the opening moves and responses.
- Learning a few reference positions.
- Learning some racing / bearoff formulae.
- Studying basic match play concepts and learn Neil’s numbers.
- Learning from your mistakes.
What tips and strategies would you suggest? I look forward to reading your comments below.
Update: We have received the following email from Tim Chow:
Thanks for the heads up! That’s a nice blog post. There’s a slightly updated version of Neil’s numbers. In my opinion, the main thing that makes eXtreme Gammon worth the money is that it performs rollouts much faster. User-friendliness is in the eye of the beholder.
Tim
Note to Comment subscribers – Tim Chow, who produced the Opening Reply chart referenced in Part 1 of Sean’s post has emailed us with his comments. This email appears as an update at the end of the post.
How wrong is 10/9*, 8/3 in the first 5-1 problem?
You can question if one can know all the responses (even AtS) and I can assure you that you can. What you can’t do is sit down and gobble them all up in one or two sessions and think they’re going to stick. Like you said, there’s a looooooooooot of them. You need to break them down into little bits and learn only so much a day so that you really learn it rather than trying to tackle too much information and confusing yourself more than anything.
What I recommend for the disciplined player who really wants to learn the responses is on day 1 learn all the opening replies to a 31P (for money). On day 2 you review day 1 and also add all the replies to an opening 42P. On day 3 you review days 1 and 2 and add the replies to 53P. Next 61P, then 65R. Once you have the replies down cold, knowing the whys behind what is right and how close the other plays are so you’ll be able to apply that knowledge to score based decisions, you can then drop it from your review list. We start with 31P, 42P, 53P, 61P, 65R because they are opening rolls that every last tournament player on the planet is going to play the same so it’s more important to know them as they will happen more frequently.
After that, I would simply go in some sort of order continuing to add one per day and reviewing the rest. Doing it this way should take you about a month. Once you’re done I suggest reviewing them whenever you have down time or before a tournament especially when you have time to kill on a plane for example. It goes quite fast to do it. You set up the position on XG for example and then scroll through all the dice rolls and how you’d play them.
It is so easy that I would also recommend after you see how easy it is to start in on doing the same with the third rolls 😉
Stick
That’s what I call stimulating a debate! The only thing to add to Stick’s comments is that this a world champ level player who wants to take every last scrap of leverage that he can to improve his already strong game. For the rest of the world who can only imagine playing at this level, perhaps we need to address other issues. For one, I would never study on the way to a tourney. Works for Stick, not for me!
There are so many areas of this game to learn, it’s truly hard to know where to start, and once you start, you never finish…but all of Sean’s ideas are good ones, and very well presented. One of my favorite sayings is “You don’t know what you don’t know,” so I always say the first place to start is to discover what you don’t know. Find out that you are making errors and see where they are, and once you have determined what you don’t know, you can make a plan to gain the knowledge and skills to improve. How do you find out what you don’t know? What your weaknesses are? Just play a game or two against a bot (eXtremeGammon is by far the best), and take a look at your errors. Then tackle them one at a time…one area at a time. Enjoy the trip. It truly can be lots of fun simply learning more and more about the game and watching yourself improve. Make sure it’s fun and interesting and enjoyable, or you won’t stick with it. Enjoy the trip!!!
Oh, and the very best to the UKBGF–I have already offered my support and effort as a volunteer to help my friends across the pond any way I can.
Phil
There’s more. Maybe a bot playing a bot is correct to hit, but maybe a human is correct to make the 5pt. Sometimes hitting gives your opponent much less to think about, while not hitting gives her more opportunities to make a mistake. It’s going to be a long tough game and the 5pt is a solid asset to lock down.
You can certainly question this, Paul and my answer would be: No, unless you are Paul Lamford you can’t possibly learn by rote all the responses to all the opening moves in all situations.
However I don’t think that you need to. I think you can usefully spend a limited amount of time remembering those responses which differ from the norm. For example, when should you not make your bar point with a 61 reply? Or (as in Sean’s example) when don’t you make the 5-point with a 31 reply?
Last week, before Sean wrote this, I was coincidentally looking at the opening replies and it was scary to realise how many I was getting wrong. Hopefully Sean’s excellent post will spur me on to spend at least some time correcting this!
Be interested in rationale for not making 5pt with a 3/1 roll – especially as this only applies when both players are 1 away (dmp) and indeed both 2 away or post crawford opp 1 away and you 2 away !!
Better still what if crawford game – opp 1 away and you 2 away ???? Totally new move !!!!
Man I need to enter the beginners at the open !! ;-[[
It’s very good to know that my old friend Sean is on the team. Can I though, in the interests of debate, question whether one can really learn all the opening reponses? There must be at least 2,000 of them, although some of them will be duplicates of course. Perhaps the time would be better spent in other ways. Interesting position though, which I for one would have got wrong. Look forward to seeing you again, next September if not before!