Customer Reviews

100 Backgammon Puzzles: A Champion's Guide to Testing Your Skills and Improving Your Game

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have about a dozen backgammon books and this is one of the better ones. The positions included cover a huge range of situations and teach a lot of useful key positions. I find his tips and various rules of thumb highly educational.

Personally, I much prefer Lamford's writing style to Robertie's. It's clear, helpful and straightforward (not sensationalist). His PRAT (position, race & threats) advice on doubling is something I've seen no where else, and it's a very useful tool indeed.

It's good for beginners keen to get into the more complex aspects of the game and intermediates working to improve, but experts may find the limited amount of deep analysis disappointing (I'm rated about 1800 on FIBS).

I agree with the subtitle of the book about testing your skills.... but definately not on Improving your game. The answers and the tips at the end of each quiz are telegraphic ... nothing you would benefit from. Testing your skills? Yes maybe the results of the tables can give you an idea of your level.

I enjoy short and sweet formats in books. In particular, I like this kind of puzzle format.

I like how the puzzles make you think -- and learn specific parts of the game of backgammon. You can put the book down and pick it up, flipping to various puzzles to refresh your memory about the important aspects of the game. This reminds me of the old Barclay Cooke book I had as a youngster (LOL: several of Cooke's solutions have been proven wrong by today's neural net backgammon software programs) -- but it was "Good stuff" -- just like this book.

This book has helped me considerably with my decisions for backgammon matches