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#5
10-21-2006, 09:03 AM
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Re: BG books for beginners
The Cruelest Game is a real paradox, (as Barclay himself might say). It's probably the most entertaining book ever written on backgammon, as Barclay Cooke was an excellent writer and really loved his subject. No other book is as likely to get you so interested in the game itself.
Unfortunately, the advice in the book is awful, and his follow-up, "Paradoxes and Probabilities" is even worse. If you absorb these books and his theories, you're going to have to spend a long time relearning the game at some later date. Save yourself some misery and learn the game from good books. 
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#6
10-25-2006, 09:56 AM
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Re: BG books for beginners
Robertie - I've read Paradoxies and Probabilites, can you explain to me why it is so bad? I've seen some web sites actually reccomend the book as essential reading. I need to know what I need to unlearn!!
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#7
10-25-2006, 10:50 PM
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Re: BG books for beginners
[ QUOTE ]
If you absorb these books and his theories, you're going to have to spend a long time relearning the game at some later date. [/ QUOTE ] Nonsense. I learned from Bruce Becker's Backgammon for Blood. I suffer no ill effects. (Well, except for the searing pain I feel in my head from the deconditioning therapy necessary to stop me from playing all my opening sixes from the midpoint. That and the 4.3 squazillion dollars I lost to opponents who realize that you don't have to keep hitting blots and helping out my backgame timing.)
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#8
10-26-2006, 09:26 AM
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Re: BG books for beginners
OK, here goes.
"Paradoxes and Probabilities" was based on an erroneous conception of backgammon. The game is fundamentally a race, with a lot of fascinating positional overtones. Cooke thought the game was fundamentally a positional struggle, with racing overtones. In his problems, he's constantly advocating the sacrifice of racing equity to build priming structures. He's sometimes correct, but more often wrong, and a lot of his mistakes are really serious blunders. Slotting a point to make a better blocking formation is actually a dangerous play which has to be considered very carefully. To be correct, a slot has to be based on more than just the potential value of the slotted point. The point must be both valuable and unlikely to be made in the normal course of events. Often a correct slot also involves unstacking a heavily stacked point. If your position is not stacked but is reasonably flexible, slots are likely to be wrong because your position will improve itself naturally, without risk. There are plenty of positions where slotting, or some other apparently risky maneuver, is completely correct. But Cooke can't distinguish between the two. In a nutshell, he just took too much risk for the potential rewards. You can try to play in Cooke's style if you wish, but against competent opponents, what will happen is that you will be forced into various sorts of holding games and lose lots of races. Once in a while, of course, your fancy plays will work and you'll look like a genius. But not often enough. By the way, in the early 1970s, a lot of top players played in Cooke's style and were very successful. (Which is why the books were written.) But they succeeded because most of their opponents were complete beginners who had no idea how to use the cube, not because of their super-aggressive play. A more modern approach to using the checkers would have won even more easily.
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#9
10-26-2006, 11:36 AM
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Re: BG books for beginners
Thanks for the critique, I will reread it but with your points in mind to help me 'unlearn'.
I've been playing for about 2 years, I started with "Backgammon for Winners" and then "Backgammon for Serious Players" and then assorted other books without much of a plan. I had laid out a plan for improving my game which was to read the following books (I've read some before) in this order while continuing to play, study annotated games etc. Any comments on what's missing and what's not there that should be..... Backgammon - Paul Magriel Backgammon Boot Camp - Walter Trice Backgammon for Profit - Joe Dwek 501 Essential Backgammon Problems - Bill Robertie Advanced Backgammon Vol 1 & 2 - Bill Robertie New Ideas In Backgammon - Kit Woolsey & Hal Heinrich Modern Backgammon - Bill Robertie Obviously this is a plan for the next few years, not an overnight thing!
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