One Tenth of a Point
by Douglas Zare
3 August 2010
Douglas Zare
Backgammon positions which are known to be close take/pass decisions are commonly studied. Knowing which positions are on the boundary can help you to make the right decision. However, if you only study the borderline decisions, then you are missing part of the picture. In practice, the very close decisions are the ones you can't get wrong by much. If you flip a coin every time you are faced with a close decision, you will not give up much equity. In addition, the borderline decisions do not tell you how much an improvement is worth, and that level of understanding is useful in match play.
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1.
Subject: Re: One Tenth of a Point
From:
Mr_Pedantic
Date:
04 Aug 2010 06:58 EST
I like the technique of putting answers in white. Maybe it can be adopted by the other columnists on GammonVillage?
2.
Subject: Re: One Tenth of a Point
From:
schmucki
Date:
13 Aug 2010 10:58 EST
i like your view from a take/pass-faktor!
3.
Subject: Re: One Tenth of a Point
From:
zare
Date:
13 Aug 2010 21:20 EST
It looks like I only showed 14 checkers for White in diagram 3. This should be fixed soon, but White should have a blot on his 24 point, too.
Douglas Zare
4.
Subject: Re: One Tenth of a Point
From:
ddabney
Date:
18 Aug 2010 08:07 EST
Putting the answers in white is a clever idea, but I can't find any way to make them visible on my iPad, so I'll have to revisit the page from another device to see where I'm wrong. I'm not sure that the technique should be more widely used.
5.
Subject: Re: One Tenth of a Point
From:
cadillac jack
Date:
18 Aug 2010 14:20 EST
I agree with ddabney. When are you going to write a book - i would like to purchase a copy.
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