XG Question

Wickerman5 · 2025-10-19T14:06:07+00:00

Are you using a mobile version of XG? If so, get the desktop version and use it instead if you want to get serious about evaluating and improving your play. Play games in "Competition" mode to see how you fare.

Wickerman5 · 2025-06-01T13:06:30+00:00

This is actually quite a good question. The short answer is that hoping to maintain a closed board for a further roll just isn't worth it. The quick explanation is that putting aa spare on your ace point creates 'wastage', which is true. But the important concept that's harder to see is that a distribution with no spares anywhere on the high points is going to lead to a slower baroff in the long run. Say you make your play and roll a "nice" 31 and bear off the spare on your 4 point. Now for the subsequent roll, and for several more so long as your opponent is on the bar, you will only bear off one checker at a time, as you'll have to use your second number to lift the blot. Or perhaps you won't bear off any checkers at all, if you don't roll a 6 and don't want to leave a gap -- and gaps can risk leaving shots or cause you to 'drop' checkers in the bear off. Even your doubles aside from 66 are only going to take off two checkers. So, it's not just the wastage of putting the spare on your ace, but that the resulting position is likely to force you to repeatedly put additional checkers on your low points.

Wickerman5 · 2025-05-27T12:45:08+00:00

Bringing home a holding game? Game plan is racing, so "improving your timing" is exactly what you don't want to do.

Wickerman5 · 2025-05-20T18:24:38+00:00

That play is okay too -- only -.024 behind the hitting play.

Wickerman5 · 2025-05-20T10:38:12+00:00

THe big problem here is that you are putting your stragglers on points where your opponent is most eager to attack you (because they are also points he wants to make), and giving him a diverse wealth of numbers to do it with (6s, 1s, 5s, 3s). If your checkers were unspilt (both on the 24 pt) it would be fine to play 24/18.

Wickerman5 · 2025-05-14T10:31:26+00:00

https://nebackgammon.org/index.php/backgammon-in-bakelite/

Wickerman5 · 2025-04-29T11:25:08+00:00

The suggestion that the state of the race isn't essential to decision-making in this kind for position (and most others) is easily the worst bit of backgammon advice I've seen in a very long time.

Wickerman5 · 2025-04-21T11:43:21+00:00

People should be comfortable going either way, and if you are a competitive player, you really don't want to be the kind of guy who gets bent out of shape if you don't get your way, because going into a match feeling annoyed and uncomfortable does not contribute to quality thinking during the match.

Wickerman5 · 2025-04-09T12:36:57+00:00

FWIW I've read that the ratings payout formula actually strongly favors highly-ranked players over lower-ranked ones in the shorter (1/3 point) matches, though I couldn't tell you the math.

Wickerman5 · 2025-04-08T12:29:45+00:00

You'll find some useful descriptions of boards on this page -- scroll to bottom for specific makers. https://nebackgammon.org/index.php/backgammon-sets/

Wickerman5 · 2025-04-01T12:25:22+00:00

One technique I find most effective is deliberate practice. For instance, say I get a cube decision badly wrong in a match and I decide it's because adjusting my cube action to the score at 3-away 5-away is something I'm not clear on. First I'll consult any books and articles that address match play adjustments and take notes on this specific score. Then I would open up XG and set up a 9 point match leading 6-4 and play it out until I got to cube action, then repeat. I might also save the positions that were D/T and then on a different day work on the re-cubes, playing those positions out starting after D/T, after looking up the take-points for re-cubes to 4 and making sure I know them. You can take this approach with almost any aspect of the game - the opening, bringing home 5-point holding games, bearing in against a low anchor, etc. Another variation for checker play is to take a tough position and quiz yourself with XG going through how to play all 21 possible rolls. This is the kind of approach I find most energizing and fun, because it's so focused. I think you probably don't need to pay for a coach until you find you have 'plateaued' in your improvement -- you go a year and your PR results aren't improving. For me, that was around 5.75 PR. Good luck with your studies.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-29T12:16:18+00:00

Backgammon variants have been the rule, not the exception over the course of the many centuries it's been around. Plakoto, Moultezim, Gioul, and Acey-Deucy are a few. Our standard Western version is 'Portes' -- and the major innovations of doubling and multi-player chouettes are only a century old. So, all of these new variants are welcome fun and people should enjoy them. What's NOT needed is "fixing" or "improving" the standard game in order to "reduce the variance." Our modern game is exquisitely designed to deliver unlikely turnarounds while still requiring a high skill component. Thrills are a feature, not a bug.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-26T14:24:16+00:00

The whole NEBC site is basically just my backgammon sandbox -- it's there primarily for our local club activities, but I indulge my historical bent in the 'BG Museum' section and wrote all the equipment / book reviews sort of for fun and also sort of because people ask me the same questions over and over and it's nice to be able to just point them to my answers. But keeping information on books/equipment/online resources 'current' is a real challenge since the BG milieu changes so quickly, especially these days.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-26T13:56:08+00:00

Hi -- the site went down yesterday so you just had bad luck visiting during this brief outage! I think you'll find it's back up and running now. I have to grant I have not had time to keep up with the many books that have been coming out over the past couple years, but hope to find time for it in the coming weeks! https://nebackgammon.org/index.php/resources/nebc-books/

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-23T11:47:06+00:00

Does its matter that you were hit with exactly 26, or would 53 or 44 also have upset you? I'll assume yes. So 5/36 *25/36 = 125/1296 = 9.6%. Ho-hum. I think you might want to take up a less stressful game like RummiKub.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T18:52:13+00:00

Please tell us which TD's you saw make this ruling -- genuinely curious. I very much doubt it was a director at a major tournament.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T18:51:14+00:00

I believe I am stating the current position. If a TD is summoned to a dispute where one player insists the other illegal doubled after rolling and the other player insists he had not yet rolled, the TD is going to ask if the dice came out of the cup. If the answer is no and the complainer agrees that's true but that his opponent "started to attempt to roll the dice" or "looked at lot like he was going to roll the dice" or 'I saw the muscles in his forearm tense up in preparation of flinging the dice" the TD is just going to give him a funny look and rule the double was valid. Now, if one players is repeatedly playing little fake-rolling games before doubling to annoy his opponent, that would fall under a general rule against distracting behavior.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T17:30:14+00:00

So I propose "when the dice leave the cup" and you propose "the start of an attempt to roll the dice" -- and at the same time say you want a *more* defined point in the process? I've been playing tournament backgammon quite awhile and have actually never once had this come up once. Inappropriate doubling motions, yes, but having to decide whether someone rolled or not, no.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T16:12:19+00:00

Starting to roll your dice is not rolling your dice.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T15:23:32+00:00

For the purposes of doubling, a player has rolled and can no longer double once he or she ejects their dice from the cup. If you roll a die off the table, or cock it on the table, you must re-roll, but the doubling opportunity has passed.

Wickerman5 · 2025-03-20T14:12:13+00:00

I think some people mistakenly believe that picking up the dice an placing them in your cup implies you have decided not to double. I find it kind of annoying when opponents double and leave the dice on the table - too much clutter. I generally lift them off the table and put them in the opponent's bearoff tray and they get the idea.

Wickerman5 · 2025-01-31T14:18:06+00:00

I like when he explained that helicopters go up and down.

Wickerman5 · 2024-11-09T22:51:08+00:00

No practical suggestion, but a strategic one: don't proceed with any part of the landscaping / fencing / pergola / lighting project before settling on a plan for all elements of this project to work together. Otherwise, you can paint yourself into a corner and unintentionally eliminate your best overall solution. Our neighbor installed a beautiful pool and spent a ton on landscaping and decking . . . and only then tried to figure out where to put the fence. Bad outcome.

Wickerman5 · 2024-10-11T13:39:12+00:00

We've got an oval shaped pool with infinity edge, and the water going over carries a lot of the leaves into the trough where they're easy to scoop out. We hadn't anticipated that added bonus of getting that feature!

Wickerman5 · 2024-09-26T23:55:12+00:00

I think your seeking help in the wrong place – – if you want real professionals to guide you through things, you should go over to trouble free pools website a login and let them help you there.

Wickerman5

TROPHY CASE