It is a common occurrence in the game, soon after you wade into the thickest jungle, that's when backgammon begins to beguile. Softly at first. Backgammon beguiles you in scrubby rugged terrain where fleet gazelles play at running games. Lady B smoothly beckons you into a majestic library, lets you wander off, poke about, until…
four threes
Has the old man has lost his marbles along with his ailing vision? Last night the old man quietly sidles up to third roll tosses of three-fours. Admit it. Too young. Too early. Hardly into the opening phase. Just the third roll from the blessed birth of a new game. And yet the 34s roll…
a question of rodents
In backgammon an expert player of cunning and means will always try to gain a decisive edge on a suspicious gambling mark for example the jacoby rule provides that edge it focuses attention on the doubling cube gammons do not count until after somebody doubles the stakes for either side the rule injects a sense…
a word on game plan options
This is a short cash game with one actual checker play decision, and thereby one error. The choices are close in equity, so anyone could select one of the five sensible plays without losing respect. Black opens with 61s and makes the bar. White replies with 25s, splitting her backmen and moving a midpoint spare.…
ipso facto weed whacker
"Woke up this morning ... saw the blue moon in your eyes." Sometimes you have to live in the basement. Not in a man cave, but the actual basement. Bunking and debunking with spiders and heating tanks. Broken TV but at least a stereo, old music discs, and a makeshift pantry of citrus fruits and…
cube 2.71
Five point match. White's match score is two, Black's zero. Black on roll. Cube action? During the pause, Black considers a double and White considers a take. A short match with score B:W as 5a/3a, so the baronMET probability of Black (on roll) to win this match is about 3/8. Of course, Black’s game chances…
options
Always have options at the ready in backgammon. The quantum nature of Lady Luck means: things turn on a dime, things veer into a hazy future. At the outset, divine a way to profit from Luck's caprice. Select each phase of the game and sample it. Start with game plans and kinds of attack, move…
Takes (240)
Nothing says "Take" like getting stoned and publicly rambling about a doubling cube decision. Here's a devilish question: Did you think you'd get The Devil all to yourself? No. Heavens. No. SHE is far too busy for the likes of you and your ilk, an elitist stickler for propriety in backgammon. Fret not. Today you…
answer or pincer (1)
Black pauses to take stock of a faint signal coming from his sources of inspiration, mental beams of imagination, fragments of thoughts from Black's subconscious, a chatter of ideas directed by that young prodigy he once was. In short, Black thinks. By design, Black arranged for both komoku corners to open towards the top. In…
Interview with Nachi
So Nachi. Finally figured out what you like best. You, a veteran player of many faces. Best of all: You like to study the game more than you enjoy playing it. There is no kind way to phrase it. Nachi. You study too much. Eaioue …. Y !! That's not the real purpose of any…
the baron talks backgammon 