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Preparations for a big tournament

Finally, I managed to find time for a real tournament. My eyes are set on the 7th Merit Open Int Backgammon Championship held in Cyprus early November. Based on peoples previous experiences with that tournament it will be a nice experience.

This blog is about how I prepare for a larger tournament, especially when out of shape (in more than one way). The main goal is to be ready for the tournament to a degree where I believe that I could win it! How do I plan to get to that point?

I’m very structure and process oriented. It may seem boring and tedious but I find comfort in having everything in a system. This way of thinking has brought me many practical challenges because I’m heavily biased towards consistency rather than what works. If it does not make sense to me I won’t do it even though I objectively understand that it is right.

Then the question is: Can you put Backgammon into a system? To a very high degree, yes!

Guiding principles for improvement

  • Strengthen basic understanding of the game
  • Work on specific problems in your game (learn/understand new concepts)
  • Generalize specific problems and solve the specific problem with the generalized model
  • Get feedback through analysis of your own games and training session with other players

My main issue: Thinking vs. knowing

Thinking is easy: Requires effort here and now
Knowing is hard: Requires planning, hard work and discipline

I’m lazy. Not in the sense of lying on the couch in front of the TV all day, but in the sense of relying on thinking rather than knowing. One of my strengths is that I’m very good at focusing a lot of energy into solving a specific problem here and now. The flip side is that I never really appreciated what hard work can achieve because a focused effort with minimal preparation would get me through almost any challenge. This is basically the story of my backgammon life too. Let’s take a closer look at the current situation in relation to backgammon.

Past experience tells me that trying to patch up the holes in my understanding of the game will fail (trying to think instead of knowing). It is too short sighted and require way too much energy when sitting at the board trying to make it work. Generally speaking I tend to spend too much time pondering over positions while playing a tournament (trying to think instead of knowing) . This usually brings me into time trouble resulting in even more mistakes.

When you are playing a tournament you should focus on utilizing what you already know and when you are in a training setting you should focus on getting to know more.

Clearly, I’m breaking my own rule but I intend to do better. By identifying the types of positions where I spend a lot of time I can go back and analyse those situations in depth to actually understand them. This will save me a lot of time in future situations. Later I’ll go more into exactly what type of problems I need to focus on.

Basic understanding of the game

There are a lot of things that we know about backgammon – a lot of things where we have a clear answer. This knowledge has been put into many good books. Basically everyone could sit down and learn these things and become an expert player. Of course it requires a significant effort but you don’t have to think a single original thought yourself.

Here is my recommended reading list for basic knowledge (sorted: Easy to hard):

  • Backgammon From basics to badass, Marc B. Olsen
  • Opening Concepts, Michihito Kageyama and Roland Herrera
  • Endgame Technique, Michihito Kageyama and Roland Herrera
  • Backgammon Boot Camp, Walter Trice
  • Backgammon Pure Strategy, Marc B. Olsen
  • Modern Backgammon, Bill Robertie

In my own preparations I’ll read quickly through Michi’s two books (448 pages) and spend some time studying cube action in Pure Strategy (179 pages) and Boot Camp (81 pages).

Specific problems in my game

To be as efficient as possible I’ll address the specific issues that I’m actually facing in my matches. After a match I’ll go through the whole match move by move and try to formulate what is going on in the position. When in doubt I test my hypothesis by changing features of the position to see the effect and then restate my understanding of the position.

Recent matches indicate that I struggle heavily with cube action and safe vs. bold positions. In future blogs a lot of examples will be analyzed.

Generalizing a problem

I learn through conceptualizing things. When faced with a specific problem

  1. I try to conceptualize it
  2. Solve the conceptualized problem
  3. Use the solution on the specific problem

This way I am solving a class of problems instead of a single instance.

Feedback

Most of the time I’m trying to update my conception of the game but it is a challenge doing this only with a computer. For this preparation I’ve asked two Grandmasters (Karsten Bredahl and Marc B. Olsen) to have a few session with me based on the themes that I have been working on.

The next blogs will be centered around the things I’ll learn and work on. If we are lucky there is a chance that one of the training sessions with a Grandmaster will be recorded for publication.

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Learning from mistakes 4: Conflicting concepts

Yesterday I played a 3-point match where everything went wrong. Somehow I managed to use the wrong concepts in a lot of positions. It is rather painful to go through the game step-by-step but that is in fact the most important part of improving.

The steps are

  1. Understand why you came to the wrong conclusion.
  2. Understand how you come to the right conclusion.
  3. Review the positions multiple times until it becomes natural to you what the right concepts are.

In the following part I have selected two of the positions and go through step one and two.

Example 1

Score: 0-0/3 – Cube centered. White to move 43.

I looked at the following concepts/rules of thumb:

  • Don’t split when your opponent made the 2-point early in the game. By splitting you give the opponent a chance to attack you and get value of the 2-point.
  • Don’t be afraid of being blitzed when the attacker has 8 or less checkers in the zone .
  • Don’t be afraid to split when your opponent has striped the 8-point (only two checkers on the 8-point).
  • Unstacking the heavy mid-point is good.
  • Bringing more builders into play.

Based on these ideas I have three options:

  1. 24/20 13/10 (going for better anchor)
  2. 24/21 13/9 (going for less shots)
  3. 13/10 13/9 (going for more builders)

Choosing between option 1 and 2 heavily relies on the amount of good rolls Black can roll. Black will hit the checker on the 10-point with both 54 and 63 where only 44 and 62 will hit on the 9-point (22 will make the 4-point).

On top of that Black is more happy to hit loose on the 5-point with aces because they are not especially useful anywhere else. We can conclude that 24/21 13/9 is better than 24/20 13/10.

The above conclusion points to a concept that I forgot in my analysis done over the board: Efficiency of opponents next roll.

Now, choosing between option 2 and 3 is difficult. Looking at the concepts option 3 seems to meet most of the criteria. Option 2 win more games where option 3 win more gammons. It turns out that they are basically equally good with a very small bias towards option 3.

Example 2

Score: 0-0/3 – Cube centered. White to move 32.

Concepts that I took into account:

  • Pip-count: Down by 18 before the roll
  • Risk of being hit
  • Relative board strength
  • Builders for attacking
  • Unstacking the mid-point (13-point)
  • Leave 3 checkers on the mid-point

Again I considered three options:

  1. 13/11 13/10 (going for prime)
  2. 13/10 6/4 (going for attack)
  3. 13/8 (going for safety)

Analyzing option 3 is easy. We are behind in the race and it is not super risky to be hit because of the blot on Blacks 4-point. These factors are enough to dismiss option 3.

The next question is should we attack or should we prime?

Pro attack (option 2):

  • Only one blot
  • 10 checkers in the zone for a quite strong blitz next roll
  • Behind in the race
  • Black has a blot in the home board

Con attack:

  • Difficult to attack only one checker
  • Black has better relative board strength
  • White is not lost in the race

Pro prime (option 1):

  • More checkers in the zone
  • More control
  • More possibilities to make point next roll
  • Behind in the race

Con prime:

  • Two blots (more risk)
  • Not leaving 3 checkers on the mid point

Taking all these considerations into account one point becomes clear. We do not have a position where we can win here and now. If we have to build up to an attack or a priming game the latter has way more long time potential. This takes a lot of power out of the attacking plan and leaves us with the priming option.

The missing piece of the puzzle was that the attack is too slow and it does not have the necessary power.

Good luck with your training. See you at the tables.

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Learning from mistakes 1: Introduction

Personally I believe that you learn the most from your own mistakes. You made them – you own up to them. This is the first part of a series of blog posts called “Learning from mistakes” (LFM) where I will go into some of the errors I made in serious games.

XG Masters 2018

In Denmark we have a tournament running over the summer where a lot of very strong players attend. The main focus is playing well – not winning. You will get awarded one point for winning a match, one point for having the lowest error rate and one point for giving up the least match winning chances.

Each round is planned individually between players and it is typically played at one of the players home or at a cafe. All matches are recorded by video and later transcribed and analysed by eXtreme Gammon (the best backgammon software available).

Getting back into tournament backgammon

I’m participating in XGM this year with a hope of getting back into playing tournament backgammon again after a break for more than 10 years. In the meantime I have been playing a little bit with the computer and on my phone, but mostly single games and primarily to kill time.

Recently I realized that I’ve been missing playing tournaments a lot. Unfortunately I’m very rusty and have to dedicate myself to work hard on the game to be able to be competitive again.

Main focus points:

  • Spend the time needed
  • Play serious tournaments (record all matches)
  • Understand my mistakes
    • Question everything
    • Make sure to learn something
  • Play matches online to think about backgammon every day
  • Discuss backgammon with strong players.

Personal goals

There are two tournaments in scope. XG Masters 2018 and BMAB UK in September. My main goal is to play below 6.0 (average Performance Rating) in those two tournaments together and below 5.5 in BMAB. My current level is around 6.5 which is unsatisfactory to say the least. I make too many unforced blunders.

My main weaknesses are cube action in general and match play in particular. These are typically the first things that you get out of touch with when not playing for a while.

Next blog

The next couple of blogs will go into the first match in XG Masters that I played against Ole Michael Nielsen yesterday evening. There are plenty of mistakes to learn from…

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My favorite backgammon books

Usually I view a book in the context of the pyramid of understanding. What parts of the pyramid are they focused on? What are they trying to teach me? In this blog I will focus on books that I believe together would give a broad foundation within all levels of the pyramid. These are my favorite backgammon books.

Opening Concepts

This great book was written by one of the top players in the world, Michihito Kageyama and his good friend and Roland Herrera who contributed by making the book very clear and concise in the way everything are presented.

This book is mainly for beginners. I like it very much because it breaks down a position in concepts that can be expressed clearly in proverbs. They give you a way to put a position into words. This in turn gives you an opportunitet to talk about and analyse a position. I did get a few things cleared up myself.

The book mainly discusses the opening phase of the game talking about how to figure out what type of position you are in and what game plan you need.

Beginners and intermediates will benefit most from it but advanced players can definitely also learn a thing or two from it.

This is a must read!

From Basics to Badass

This book is written by grand master Marc Brockmann Olsen who is one of the people behind Backgammon Galaxy. He is trying to provide a platform where you have integrated play and analysis into the same product. Marc’s dedication to backgammon as a skill game is apparent in his approach to his backgammon site. This book is for beginners but it also covers a lot about match play for the intermediate and advanced players.

What I really like about this book is that it gives you some simple concepts that you can try to apply to the game. If you learn them all and manage to utilize them you will be an advanced player. I don’t think there are enough examples in the book but it is also clear that this was not what Marc is aiming for.

This book is to be considered as a list of concepts that covers almost all facets of backgammon. It is then your job to work with the material and get a feeling for each concept and how it interacts with other concepts.

As a stating point for a new backgammon player I don’t think you will find a better book.

Boot Camp

Walter Trice wrote a series of articles for GammonVillage that he put together as a book. This book is supposed to cover all aspects of backgammon which is of course not possible – but this is the best try I have seen so far.

The book is basically for everyone. Yes, everyone. There are so many ideas and concepts that you can find something about everything. Sometimes I feel that the book is not connecting the dots. Some sections are too self-contained and it does feel like the book was not written as a book but first as a series of articles.

I use it as an encyclopedia where I look up ideas if I need one. I can recommend this book to everyone.

Modern Backgammon

The last book I’d like to mention in this blog post is my favorite book from multiple times world backgammon champion and extraordinaire author Bill Robertie. This book is not for beginners at all. I would say that you will start getting something out of it when you reach strong intermediate level.

This book is inspired by the way computer programs play backgammon. Bill set out to put the new concepts and ideas from the computer programs into words that we as humans could understand. The book is very well written and with good structure and many good examples. I believe that this book did the most for my game in helping me understand the over-all goals of the game and how to achieve them in practice.

If you are on your way to becoming a strong player this book might be what you need to advance. I can definitely recommend it to all serious players.

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Concepts for improving your game

Commitment

For more that 20 years I have been a part of communities where people play games. Some of these people are highly successful and some are not. What is the difference between them?

I see at least four important factors:

  • Time spent: It takes a lot of time and practice to become good.
  • Agony of losing: People who really hate to lose will tend to go the extra mile to avoid the upsetting defeats.
  • Structured learning: Make sure that your hard work does actually give you a specific result. If it’s not specific, then it is probably not structured good enough.
  • Having success is more important than not failing: The people are going for the gold and not satisfied with less.

Mindset

Some years back I had a talk with a really strong backgammon player who told me that he had a good explanation of why I struggled so much with improving to become a very strong player. His theory was that I didn’t care enough about correcting my mistakes. To begin with I was kind of offended because I felt that it was untrue and unfair. In his mind you either make the right decision or you work on understanding why you made a wrong decision. No in-between.

That was where I understood that I’ve been having the wrong focus by trying to only work on the really bad decisions. I was never really challenged in understanding the details of the game because I expected my progress  to come from not being bad instead of being the result of trying to be good.

Developing your backgammon skills

My approach to understanding backgammon can best be viewed as a pyramid.

Start learning from the top and add new knowledge from the next level when you are done with the previous level. If you start learning technique you will have a really hard time understanding when and how to use it because you don’t have enough grasp on concepts or even game plans.

When you start out as a new player try to establish what the main objectives of the game are. Then move on to learn the game plans and what relation these have to the main objectives. Later you can look at some concepts and again try to understand how those are related to what you’ve learned about main objectives and game plans. It is the relation part that challenges most players. It’s relatively easy to learn a new concept, but to understand how it fits into everything else is difficult. This is where the hard work and structured learning comes in.

Good luck with your training. See you at the tables.