HOW DO YOU STACK UP AGAINST THE GIANTS?

By Phil Simborg and analysis by Stick

In recent years, I have heard the argument that high-level backgammon is nowhere near as interesting as it once was, because now that we have bots like eXtremeGammon, GNU and Snowie to clearly show the best plays, “all top players play the same.”

I won’t say that the argument is completely wrong, because most are playing most moves the same—and more importantly, they are making the right move!  (In golf, doesn’t every good putt look the same?)  30 years ago, before the bots were perfected, the top players in the game were still making many of the same moves, but there certainly was more variance in approaches and style, and there were disagreements and debates even about some of the opening moves.  No question that most of those debates have now been settled.

I set out on a mission to PROVE that not all top players play the same.  I went through my files of thousands of positions that I use for examples, quizzes, articles and lectures, and found three that I felt were particularly difficult and hadn’t been published.   I sent those three positions to many of the top players in the world, including most of the Giants and asked them to tell me, as honestly as possible, without considering the “quiz factor,” what play they would make “over the board” in an actual match.  I promised not to name names to make it easier for them to be honest, however I have found that most are extremely honest about their mistakes anyway.   As Stick points out, however, consciously or not, there is always a “quiz factor” when presented with a problem.  Immediately the player knows there must be something about this position that might not be obvious, whereas over the board you don’t get that alert.  So it is probably right to assume that if these positions popped up in the middle of a match, more of them would have been missed or the best play possibly even overlooked completely.

In spite of the possible quiz factor, there were many reports of wrong answers.  From the 34 responses I received, 14 missed problem 1; 5 missed problem 2; and 22 missed problem 3. Further, some responded that problem 1 was very easy for them and they doubted that any Giant would miss it, and they were clearly wrong about that.  Others felt 1 was quite difficult and felt the others were easy.  And of course, there were a few (only 6) that got them all right, and one Giant even admitted that he would have probably gotten them all wrong over the board!   Again, not all of the 34 responses were from Giants, but most of them were, and the remaining ones were from players I know could easily be on the Giants list.

So the point is:  while top players are fairly consistently making the best play on the easier plays, it’s the tough plays that separate them considerably.  It’s also important to note that in these three problems, the difference between the best play and the rest is significant.

So let’s see how you would do with these three tough positions.  I will give you the problems first, and then you can scroll down and see the rollouts and an explanation and analysis by my Backgammon Learning Center partner, Stick (who got them all correct, by the way).

 STICK’S Analysis of PROBLEM 1: 

First let’s take stock of the position.  It’s a prime versus prime position with a close race.  You (the one on roll) are at the edge of prime, the 22pt, and while that would normally be a good thing since the opponent has a gapped prime, it means we are pretty well hemmed in.  The opponent is not at the edge of the prime but he is also currently not as trapped as you are.  Why is that?

It is hard for us to naturally improve our prime since the 8pt is currently stripped and part of our prime anyway.  That leaves us a scant two builders to make the all-important bar point.  If we make the bar point we will have put a choke hold on our opponent since he would not be at the edge of our 5 prime.  If we don’t make the bar, we sit idly by and wait for him to spring with a five and then we’re screwed.  Even when we are able to hit him and send him back he maintains his prime and more flexibility while we try to scrape our prime together. 

Two things I suggest when trying to understand this position.  One, imagine the variant where the opponent is already anchored up on the 22pt, is your play the same?  How has this changed the composition of the position relative to the importance of your bar point?  Two, play it out if you didn’t slot the bar point.  What you will see is that in your upcoming plays you will have the same sort of decisions, slot the bar or not?  And that’s if you are lucky enough to get a roll that even gives you that option.  In some of these situations it will be even more clear that to have adequate counterplay you need to slot the bar point.  A five is already a good roll for your opponent so take advantage of when he doesn’t roll that five and counterprime. 

STICK’s Analysis of PROBLEM 2 :