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Bill Robertie 2000 360pp
Publishers Group West
ISBN:1580420192
This book improved my game significantly. While studying this book I noticed
that my game improved dramatically. I gained a much better understanding of
duplicating, slotting, and use of the cube. I am no expert but I am now
challenging the best players in our club! If you are looking for examples this
IS the book you should get!
David Rogers, Charlotte, NC USA, March 6,
2001
If you are a backgammon lover, this book must be on your personal library.
Robertie analises problems in each point of the game, since opening rolls until
the bear off. The hints are clear and at first read you can discover many points
you would play in a different(and awnkward) position. As you read the topics you
will feel imediately a good development in your game, specially if you try to
solve then before looking for the solutions. The secret of this book is figure
out the different way of think in each situation and time of the game. A great
book that can be easily consulted by anytime.The book is shared in the following
chapters: *THE OPENING *FLEXIBILITY *THE MIDDLE GAME *THE 5-POINT *THE BLITZ
*ONE MAN BACK *HOLDING GAMES *PRIMING GAMES *CONNECTIVITY *HIT OR NOT? *BREAKING
ANCHOR *CRUNCH POSITIONS *ACTION DOUBLES *LATE GAME BLITZ *POST-BLITZ TURNAROUND
GAMES *TOO GOOD TO DOUBLE? *ACE-POINT GAMES* BACK GAMES* THE CONTAINMENT GAME*
POST-ACE-POINT GAMES* PLAYING FOR A GAMMON* SAVING THE GAMMON* BEARING OFF
AGAINST CONTACT *VARIOUS ENDGAMES *THE RACE *THE BEAROFF *Plus an introduction
with basic rules and backgammon notations and a final chapter with places to
play backgammon
ANDRE LUIS QUADROS AMOEDO from Salvador, Bahia Brazil,
November 28, 2000
The 501 positions examine your approach to the game from beginning to end.
Robertie's solutions so closely mirror my JellyFish Tutor recommendations that I
have simply dropped the examples into JellyFish and only consult the book when I
have a disagreement with the bot. Therein is the second value in this book for
me: Robertie's analysis is succinct and sticks to themes over theory. When I do
perhaps 50 positions quickly, only noting where I differ from the bot, and then
read Robertie's suggestions for these positions, I usually find a recurring
theme pointing to a weakness in my game. For me, this book is ultimately what
I've made of it, Robertie has provided the necessary resources and I recommend
this book as such.
Steve Cothran from Louisville, Kentucky, US, April
28, 2000
As I start to read Bill Robertie's latest book, 501 Essential Backgammon
Problems, I am informed in the preface that he is the world's best backgammon
player. So far so good. For those of you unaware, Robertie, former two time
world champion, has already written many books on backgammon and together with
Kent Goulding co-published the sadly now defunct, but at the time premier
magazine "Inside Backgammon". As the title suggests, it is a compilation of 501
problems, split 360 checker plays v 141 cube actions. (67 doubles 74 redoubles).
After the introductory chapters covering notation/probability/basic doubling
strategy etc, there are 26 chapters covering many of the important concepts in
backgammon from the opening to the bearoff. These are: The Opening, Flexibility,
The Middle Game, The 5-point, One Man Back, Priming Games, Connectivity, Hit Or
Not?, Crunch Positions, Action Doubles, Late Game Blitz, Post-Blitz Turnaround
Games, Ace-Point Games Back Games, The Containment, Game Post-Ace-Point Games,
Saving The Gammon, The Race, Various Endgames, Bearing Off Against Contact, The
Blitz, Breaking Anchor, Too Good To Double?, Playing For A Gammon, The Bearoff,
Holding Games, The book manages to cram the 501 positions and analyses into 384
pages of a book measuring just 23x15cms. This is achieved by squashing the
diagrams with the effect of making the checkers oval. The problems in each
chapter are all bunched together first and the solutions at the end of the
chapter hence cutting down on the need to avoid looking at the analysis. It's
target audience is everybody from beginner to expert level. The only group that
maybe wouldn't find many parts of this book valuable would be world class
players. The problems are typical of positions that appear in everyday
backgammon and not unusual or tricky positions that an expert may get wrong. The
difficulty of the problems range from very easy to hard with the majority in the
intermediate/advanced level. My guess is that the book would be suitable to
players ranked up to elo 1900 on F.I.B.S. or Gamesgrid. Robertie has attempted
to create a book of reference positions whose characteristics the reader can
hopefully remember and apply and adapt over the board and for each problem, he
typically gives a succinct 8-10 line analysis. There are no references to any of
the neural net backgammon programs in the book. I checked all the positions by
rollout and did discover some disagreements between the bots' conclusions and
Robertie's analysis. There were around 12 cube problems whose equity differed by
more than 0.04 and also some checker play differences. Some of those positions
would make good reading for the more expert players. My only major criticism on
the book is that in some of the checker play problems Robertie doesn't analyse
all the potential choices or rejects one when in fact the equities are quite
close. The reasoning behind this maybe that that the merits of that checker play
do not fit in with the theme of the chapter or are too complex. And on a
personal note I prefer to see the pip count in diagrams. Overall an excellent
book suitable for either beginners who have learned the very basics or a good
refresher book for more advanced players. Marks out of ten 8.5.
Michael
Depreli from London England, March 26, 2000
Other book reviews welcome! Email them to DocMartin@Gammoned.com
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