This comprehensive backgammon book challenges the reader with 501 essential problems to transform him into a thinking, aggressive pro-level player. Strategies and situation cover every aspect of the game, from playing positions to doubling maneuvers. Everything is carefully explained and illustrated so that the reader understands all the concepts.
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More About the Author
Bill Robertie
(Poker, Backgammon, Chess)
When Bill Robertie started playing chess as a boy, he could have had no idea that his single-minded focus on that game would eventually lead to significant world-wide achievements in 3 games - chess, backgammon and poker.
As a young man, Robertie played chess for Arlington High School (where he met fellow Metropolitan league player from Christopher Columbus High School, Dan Harrington). Robertie was the captain of his chess team for 3 years at Harvard College. He won the U.S. Speed Chess Championship and tied for First in the Golden Knights, the U.S. postal chess championship. He also gave simultaneous blind-fold exhibitions on 8 boards. A lifelong devotee of the game, Bill Robertie has written extensively on chess (Master Checkmate Strategy; Easy Endgame Strategies) and is a chess book collector with a complete set of "Chess Life" going back to 1932, missing only 1991 and 1992, for which he is actively searching.
In 1976, Robertie switched to backgammon, where his years of studying and playing chess served him especially well. Robertie very quickly became a world-class backgammon player - winning multiple tournaments including the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship twice, the Boston Black & White tournament, the Bahamas Pro-Am and the Istanbul World Cup. He is the author of 10 classic, best-selling backgammon books including Modern Backgammon, Advanced Backgammon V1, Advanced Backgammon V2 and 501 Essential Backgammon Problems.
In 2003, Robertie's remarkable game career took another important turn when he & Dan Harrington (now a poker player and World Series of Poker champion) co-authored their first poker book, Harrington on Hold'em/Strategic Play (published by Mason Malmuth's 2+2 Publishing). The first poker book that was written clearly so that players could easily get a sense of the true nuances of the game, Harrington on Hold'em/Strategic Play quickly became an instant classic, changing poker playing overnight and becoming a must-read for serious students of the game. They followed it up with Harrington on Hold'em/The Endgame, Harrington on Hold'em/The Workbook, Harrington on Cash Games V1 and Harrington on Cash Games V2, with other "Harrington" series books in the works.
Today, Bill Robertie still writes extensively on backgammon and poker. He moderates the Backgammon Forum at http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com. He also travels to backgammon and poker tournaments world-wide, and offers backgammon coaching (in person in Boston and New York City and via phone and special in-person arrangements world-wide). Details at thegammonpress.com.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
92 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
501 Essential Backgammon Problems-Bill Robertie,
By
This review is from: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Paperback)
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.
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Roll Like the Gentle Creek,
By
This review is from: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Paperback)
Backgammon is as good as it gets. The rules take minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. Each checker on the board plays an offensive and defensive role, as the two opposing forces march past each, one going clock-wise, one counter-clockwise. And then there are the dice. Like chess, there is a tremendous amount of strategy involved in how to play each roll, but the dice add another level of probabilistic strategizing. And sometimes the better strategy loses, just because the rolls don't come through.
Bill Robertie, "The world's best backgammon player" according to the back cover, breaks the strategy down into discrete 31 topics, examples being "the opening," "the middle game," "the blitz," "crunch positions," "action doubles," and "the bearoff." The topics are covered by a series of snapshot moments from a potential game. You're given a certain layout and a dice roll and asked what the best move is. Then you flip to the answer section of each chapter and see what Mr. Robertie thinks is the best move and why. As someone who was a student for over 25 years, I'm well acclimated to this format of testing, and quite comfortable with it. However, the snapshot approach doesn't address what many players do wrong, which is to lock-in to a strategy early in the game, or to have overall certain tendencies, instead of focusing on the flexibility to change strategies at any time to match the action of the game. This strategic flaw is analogous to a football coach who says you always have to establish the run before you can pass (think Mike Ditka, Dan Reaves), as opposed to a coach who approaches each team differently and can adjust to the opponent throughout the course of the game (think Mike Shanahan, Bill Belichek). It's also seen in brokers who chase after trends in the stock market, or poker players who try too hard to avenge their last hand and lose their perspective. Like other reviewers, I did find flipping back and forth between problems and solutions to be annoying, but not a deal-breaker. You just need two bookmarks and a little patience. I recommend this book. I think it has helped my overall decision making skills in Backgammon. But it won't solve the big problem of not being in the moment, of not reacting and adapting strategy to each roll of the dice. A book won't fix that. Meditation might help. Wading through a creek might help. Relaxation techniques, mindfulness exercises, and beta blockers wouldn't hurt.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not expensive, and pretty complete,
By ANDRE LUIS QUADROS AMOEDO (Salvador, Bahia Brazil) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Paperback)
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.
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