Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
by Bart Brooks
25 April 2008
Bart Brooks
We would all like to be able to play like a world class master. Actually, you can and you do. Think about it. There are some small segments of the game that you play as well as any master. I like to look at backgammon as being able to be broken down into sections, let us say like the small pieces of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. While you may not have the whole picture you can surely get a single piece just perfect. A master can do no better. Add all the pieces together and you have a masterpiece.`
| The rest of this article (31.37 K) is premium content. |
GammonVillage Subscriptions:
Article text Copyright © 1999-2009 Bart Brooks and GammonVillage Inc.
You must be signed in to rate articles.
Feedback about this article:
1.
Subject: Re: Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
From:
Mr_Pedantic
Date:
25 Apr 2008 09:29 EST
Didn't Danny Kleinman write about this in his books? Are we paying subscriptions to GammonVillage to read what we have read before?
2.
Subject: Re: Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
From:
Justin011234
Date:
26 Apr 2008 16:56 EST
Great NEW stuff, Bart. You are a real backgammon scientist in search of absolute truth, something your rollouts come closer to "bearing out" than anything Kleinman had available for such analysis. No disrespect whatsoever to Danny, but I don't recall these same conclusions having been noted at any point in his writings.
You provided some great rules of thumb that have perplexed me in the past... thanks.
3.
Subject: Re: Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
From:
Perry
Date:
27 Apr 2008 10:37 EST
The position and rolls, rollout data, and your observations has sharpened my understanding of what is going on in these types of positions. Thanks for the work and I look forward to more of your contributions.
I do have 4 suggestions if you publish this kind of data again:
1. Give the answers to each roll immediately after the problem. Going back and forth to a table at the end is not nearly as convenient.
2. Highlight the DMP results where they differ from the money game results.
3. Use a 6 prime rather than a 5 prime for the defending side. The difference may be small but why not reduce the variable of a hit checker escaping to what ever extent possible?
4. Use 3 ply precise instead of 2. I don't know if it matters in contact bear-offs but it probably does in branches that develop after being hit, and the difference in cpu time using 7 truncated is quite small. In general 3 ply results yield higher level of play data and more reliable equities.
4.
Subject: Re: Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
From:
Coolrey
Date:
30 Apr 2008 13:14 EST
Hi Bart,
I agree with Perry. Need the answers at the end of the problems. I only looked at the first problem then started scrolling to find the answer. It took awhile to get there, and then there appeared to be a typo on the very first answer! (moving 3 checkers 6/3 and one checker 5/3 w double twos can't be right).
I would tend to trust your results, and don't recommend you make them 3 ply. Time and effort are wasted and if an answer flip flops well, it was very close anyway. What you want is a rule of thumb like the 65 rule you came up with. I was surprised you didn't find more than that, though.
Ray
5.
Subject: Re: Pieces of the Backgammon Puzzle: Bearing Off vs the Ace Point
From:
kimba
Date:
19 May 2008 16:54 EST
I enjoyed & learned from the article, but:
In a whole bunch of positions the roll of 5-4 leaves a shot, but was ignored by the author.
Interesting to note that 2-2 & 6-2, played the exact same way, yield different equities!
You must be signed in to post comments.
Price: $1,950.00
FIBS Board:
Playing Bots on FIBS
Fri, Nov 20, 2009 08:24 PMGammon Go:
Position 5
Thu, Nov 19, 2009 02:32 PMBlot Blog:
Position #255
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 05:21 PM
