There has always been discussion about who is the best backgammon player in the world and there is enough disagreement that a bi-annual poll "The Giants of Backgammon" is taken to help determine that. What is less easy to determine is who will be one of the next great players.
In hockey, Wayne Gretzky was called "The Great One" and early in his career, Eric Lindros was called "The Next One" in that, fans and sportswriters thought he would be the "next" Wayne Gretzky.
# 1
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Re: The Next One |
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22 Jan 2008 22:57 EST
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Steve:
I totally agree that Stick is an up and coming talent. In past eras there were always a few players that were clearly among the best, and there still are today.
I wonder if it is possible for there ever again to be one, or just a few, individuals that will ever dominate this game again. Before we had these amazing computer programs to rely on, I believe there were significant differences in the skill levels of the players, even amongst the best players. This allowed for a few people with exceptional skills to truly play much better than other "open" level players and win more consistently.
Now, with all the knowledge we have from the bots, I doubt that the skill difference between the top 20 players is more than 1.00 on Snowie's scale. With the skill this close, that pretty much means that luck will be a much bigger factor when top players compete against each other. In other words, I don't think it will ever again be possible for one or two or three players to really stand out. UNLESS.
Unless we change the format or rules for the highest levels of play to make the game more complex and require more innate skill (as opposed to memory of reference positions and computer rollouts). I won't go into all the possible ways to do that here, but I think you can get my drift. Unless the game is changed, I think we will always have a grouping of 10 or more players who could all be considered as good as anyone else. Even today, in a typical 11 or 13 point match, how big an edge would you give the No. 1 player in the world over anyone else in the top 10...I doubt if it is more than 3 or 4 percent tops.
# 2
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Re: The Next One |
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24 Jan 2008 17:39 EST
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Thanks for your observations Phil. I don't think the rules have to be changed for a "clearcut" best player to potentially determined, as that would only determine the best "nackgammon" or "hachipuri" player.
I think it is good that there is a healthy competition among the best 20 or so players, but what I wouldn't mind seeing is an event where you are rewarded for winning as well as playing well.
Perhaps an event where points are distributed for winning matches and low error rates could be established.
That could easily be done online, although monitoring the veracity of the low error rate would be impossible and if done live would be labor intensive as recorders would be necessary for each match.
Steve Sax
# 3
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Re: The Next One |
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24 Jan 2008 19:35 EST
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I just wanted point out that Dick Ryder is one of the best players I haver ever seen for his age. He plays at the AR club in Los Angeles and is quite impressive.
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