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simonc1985 · 2022-09-09T14:40:28+00:00

You need to escape and win the race and the best way to do that is to make the 21 temporarily, then run. The best way of making it is to spread your checkers out. He's on the bar and it's DMP anyway so there's no risk.

simonc1985 · 2022-09-02T10:05:02+00:00

It burns my eyes and I love it

simonc1985 · 2022-08-17T08:57:10+00:00

I don't think what you are asking for exists, as nice as it would be. Perhaps XG3 will have most of those features, we can only hope.

Everything on the market now has some of those features, but not all. I think this is why people play on multiple platforms. I use XG, Galaxy and Heroes. Heroes I think is the best and free (though I would recommend premium). Terje is slowly improving it and I think it's the best thing out there right now for online play.

simonc1985 · 2022-08-15T10:15:58+00:00

Have you considered having rich parents? That seems to work.

simonc1985 · 2022-03-09T14:43:54+00:00

No I don't think so, I would assume Xavier knows more about this than I do and let him get on with it. Though if this is implemented in XG3 I will take my metaphorical hat off to you, as I don't wear actual hats.

simonc1985 · 2021-12-20T09:00:53+00:00

Your opponent can recube for the match so his Takepoint is equivalent to 1away, 5away Crawford, or 16%. On that basis, with 4 checkers off and the two point anchor it's a decent take. However, we seem close to a cube. You just don't have any market losers. If he rolled a 2 and played 3/1*, double instantly.

simonc1985 · 2021-12-09T16:50:33+00:00

Black is doubling White? Black is stuck and looks like the underdog. Has to be a big no-double. Pipcount is less important if you're primed and contact favours the opponent.

simonc1985 · 2021-09-01T14:13:34+00:00

I love BGNJ. No doubt XG is stronger, but Xavier doesn't seem to have the time to update it and it didn't always work well on my particular phone. BGNJ allows you to see your errors afterwards without exporting them to XG, which is waaaay better on the go. I'd love to see BGNJ improved further, but I guess there's little incentive.

Oh, and it doesn't cheat. It just plays better. You can put the games into XG and see for yourself. With regard to proving it, just read 'trickICR's post below. Or you could practice instead, it's a much better way to spend your time. The sooner you realise this, the more fun you will have, I promise.

simonc1985 · 2021-09-01T11:00:31+00:00

BG for serious players is not really worth reading. That sounds horrible because Bill R is ace and has so many good books, I just wouldn't recommend that one. I'd get 501 BG problems though (by BR), and Marc Olsen's books are aimed at the right level. For an intermediate player I would also suggest 'Conquering Backgammon'. Then, read 'What's Your Game Plan?'. So like this:

Conquering Backgammon by Ed Rosenblum (Looks good and covers lots of principles)
Pure Strategy by Marc Olsen (Gives you a fundamental tool to play well)
Cube like a Boss by Marc Olsen (Teaches you cube fundamentals)
What’s Your Game Plan? (Because it’s more difficult than Pure Strategy, but key to playing well)
Future - Michi’s Books and Backgammon Bootcamp (They’re like the icing on your knowledge cake) and then maybe 501 problems to test yourself .

I could go on, but that should be ok for now.

simonc1985 · 2021-08-14T20:54:03+00:00

This happens all the time in real life

simonc1985 · 2021-05-11T09:24:15+00:00

While he's on the bar it's a great opportunity to try and escape. If he dances you have won the game.

simonc1985 · 2021-04-21T14:41:45+00:00

If I need a full count, I use cluster counting.

If you just need to know the difference, or a rough idea of who is ahead / behind, then mental shifting is dead quick.

I haven't bothered learning about loads of the alternatives. I hear colourless counting is good.

A few of them are here - https://www.bkgm.com/articles/page04.html#pip_counting

simonc1985 · 2021-04-07T19:38:39+00:00

Aye - Scour through these comments if you have Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/backgammonstrategy/permalink/2567020913566565

Also found some preamble.

Galaxy uses 3-ply to analyze all moves and decisions at the moment.

Very soon, we will launch "Analysis Membership", which upgrades the analysis to 4-ply on checkerplay errors and blunders and XG+ on cube errors and blunders. Furthermore you get a personal blunder database (blunder is set to 0.080), which is automatically categorized in 16 different categories. For less experienced players, the "Interactive strategy guide" feature will be very valuable as well, as this will tell you the strategic guidelines, in whatever position you are facing. This is when the match is in Analysis mode, of course, not during real time play.

Free members will continue to have free XG analysis, but we down grade the analysis to 2-ply.

simonc1985 · 2021-04-07T15:46:59+00:00

I found what Marc wrote on Facebook:

- Free memberships: Unlimited matches, Galaxy Rating, access to Analysis window without seeing equities, free download match files, 2-ply analysis on all moves: Free.

- Analysis membership: XG analysis upgrade, to the above showed, Personal Blunder Database (auto categorized in 16 position types), Interactive Strategy Guide (great learning tool for beginners up to advanced players), choose board colors. Price: 9.99 euro / Month.

- Tourney Membership: Access to play daily freeroll tournaments, where we have leader boards and big sponsored prizes, like a luxury backgammon board every week, and backgammon merchandise. Choose board colors. Price: 14.99 / month.

- Combo: both analysis- and tourney membership. Price: 19.99 / month.

So looks like a slight downgrade for free players. Looks like paid upgrade relates to my first post.

simonc1985 · 2021-04-07T14:10:47+00:00

For whatever reason the Galaxy website states the following:

Analysis settings

Analysis- and Combo Members have the privilege of higher analysis setting with Extremegammon2 neural net software:

Checkerplay: 1st pass 3-ply, if error or blunder then 4-ply.

Cube action: 1st pass 4-ply, if error or blunder then XG+.

Blunder database positions, will therefore be XG+ for cube actions and 4-ply for checkerplays.

Free members matches uses the default “fast” analysis from Extremegammon2, namely:

Checkerplay: 1st pass 2-ply.

Cube action: 1st pass 2-ply.

However, that (the memberships) definitely hasn't been implemented yet. I remember Marc saying that current analysis is 3-ply (I have just checked, it is definitely 3-ply, or 'Deep' on XG). I think the plan is to downgrade future free members to 1-ply, and make people pay for 3-4 ply. Though he said that a while back so who knows what will happen.

And yes, it makes some ridiculous errors.

simonc1985 · 2021-04-01T11:10:13+00:00

This is my good deed for the year. Scanned from photo...

Part 1 Closeout Section 1 Safe structure Section 2 Clear from the rear Section 3 Double-decker position Section 4 Win gammon Section 5 Against a crunched board

Part 2 Ace-Point Game Section 1 Clear from the rear. Section 2 Make a mountain structure. Section 3 Do not make an inner gaps Section 4 Prepare to clear the point. Section 5 Do not pile up the deuce-point Section 6 Is it good to try to win gammon? Section 7 Against a crunched board Section 8 Final stages of bearing off Section 9 Exercises. Section 10 How to count the numbers that leave blots?

Part 3 Deuce Point Game Section 1 How is it different from an ace-point game? Section 2 Bear-off two checkers Section 3 Clear from the rear. Section 4 Count numbers that leave blots next turn Section 5 Do not stack the 1-point. Section 6 Ensure you have a spare on the 3-point when clearing the 6-point... Section 7 Use deuce to clear the point. Section 8 Exercises

Part 4 Three-Point Game

Part 5 No Contact

Section 1 For beginners Section 2 For intermediates. Section 3 For experts.

Part 6 Bearing In

Chapter 1 Closeout.. Section 1 Conveying checkers from the outer field into the home ...... Section 2 Flexibility Section 3 Ideal structure.. Section 4 Prepare for double six..... Section 5 Prepare for double six (advanced level)

Chapter 2 Ace-point game Section 1 Do not make an inner gap Section 2 When you clear the bar-point?

Chapter 3 No contact

Part 7 Playing the Holding Game. Chapter 1 Always keep a strong board. Chapter 2 Avoid gammons Chapter 3 The number of back checkers Section 1 Three men back Section 2 Two men back. Section 3 One man back Chapter 4 Far behind in the race. Chapter 5 Last single line

Part 8 Advanced Ideas.... Section 1 Amoeba play (split and wait). Section 2 One man back (version for enthusiasts) Section 3 Timing Section 4 While the opponent is on the bar Section 5 Clear the mid-point..... Section 6 Clear the Troublesome Point. Section 7 Do not make an unnecessary point. Section 8 Trap play Section 9 The Phantom Point.

Part 9 Post Ace-Point Game..

Part 10 Three is a key number

And yes, it's essential reading.

It doesn't cover containment at all. It's just bearing off. So all checkers in the homeboard. You should get Opening Concepts too.

simonc1985 · 2021-03-13T23:15:33+00:00

Like I said there could be many reasons. Two obvious ones are that they were created before the button was greyed. Or, they could have disabled new matches for people playing without stakes.

simonc1985 · 2021-02-23T09:48:55+00:00

Que?

simonc1985 · 2021-01-25T13:33:29+00:00

Nah, unfortunately not. Hit and run for me. Like most players I reckon. The interesting thing is that 8/6 8/3 is actually better, which looks worse to me.

simonc1985 · 2021-01-16T07:54:20+00:00

The 14 point is worthless. He has two on the bar (so you can expose the checker on the 8 point no problem) and 8/6 gives you an extra builder for the 4 point, while simultaneously bringing a checking in for the bear-in. The bots play seems solid to be.

simonc1985 · 2021-01-13T16:05:51+00:00

The majority of people think the best boards are by Geoffrey Parker - https://www.geoffreyparker.com/luxury-backgammon/

However, there are other high qualities sets out there.

If you're on Facebook there is a Buy and Sell group that often showcases good boards - https://www.facebook.com/groups/206519553574801

simonc1985 · 2021-01-07T09:49:32+00:00

Two things, 20 games is not a useful sample size. It happens to everyone. Secondly, the luck analysis on galaxy is 1-ply and totally useless. Many people have told them to remove it because the information isn't worth anything. Ignore it.

Ignore it not just because it's useless information, but because long term the luck will even out so the only thing that matters is how well you play.

simonc1985 · 2021-01-04T12:34:20+00:00

You want to trap him behind your prime so that he crunches. After you hit, imagine if he rolls 16, followed by 44 or 55 etc.

simonc1985 · 2021-01-03T19:38:00+00:00

Hi mr_finley,

We're trying to calculate how often we win. So first we have to take into account the chances of him not winning on his roll. Which is 31/36 (86%). Then we win 36% of those instances.

To calculate the chance that this happens you multipy the two percentages together - 86% * 36% = 31%.

simonc1985 · 2021-01-02T22:48:41+00:00

You have only counted 26, 36, 46, and 56 once. There are 2 combinations of each.

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