Understanding Backgammon, by Kit Woolsey, Tami Jones

Backgammon Books

Understanding Backgammon
Lessons for Serious Players

AUTHORS: Kit Woolsey
Tami Jones

YEAR: 2003

PUBLISHER: The Gammon Press

CITY: Arlinton, MA

ISBN: 0-880604-21-3

BINDING: Softcover

PAGES: 309

SIZE: 23 cm high, 18 cm wide

READERS
COMMENTS:

     This is a book of 101 problems approached from a novel angle: key features and answers are presented as a conversation between American master Kit Woolsey and his amateur collegue Tami Jones. For the most part the format works well and the book will improve the game of anyone who has the necessary $35 to invest."—Chris Bray, in Second Wind


     "The problems come from Tami's games and matches. On the whole they are very good problems. Each solution begins with Tami stating her original justification for the play that turned out to be an error. Kit responds by making a case for some other play or by asking a key question about the logic behind Tami's choice. The dialogue proceeds with each bringing in additional objections, elucidations, and explanations, until the case for the preferred choice has been made.
One reason the book works is that Kit is very good at putting specific positions and problems into the context of a game plan and drawing the solution out of the positional dynamics. Tami holds up her end, asking the right questions to get Kit to flesh out his explanations. I wholeheartedly recommend Understanding Backgammon."—Walter Trice, Flint Area BackgammoNews, October 2003


CONTENTS:

Introduction
1: To Hit or Not to Hit
2: Outfield Wars
3: Priming and Containment
4: Cube Decisions
5: To Run or Not to Run
6: Bearing In and Off
7: A Couple More Before You Go

COVER: "There are many great backgammon books currently on the market. But when I read them I felt as if something were missing. The concepts the authors were explaining made perfect sense but applying them over the board just continued to escape me. Then I figured out what was wrong. These were not the errors I commonly made. Mine were much worse! I would have been thrilled if I would have been struggling with such subtle nuances over the board. These books were written for people who understood things I didn't even know I didn't know yet. It was as if I were standing in the barren wilderness of confusion while the authors of these volumes of wisdom were across the river of knowledge in the promised land of backgammon brilliance. As an intermediate player, I barely knew what a bridge was, let alone where it was or how to cross it to gain this vast wealth of knwledge just over the river for the taking. The guards of match equity tables and game winning percentages were holding me at bay ..."

Have you ever felt this way as you read a backgammon problem book? Have you wished that authors spent more time explaining the sort of common-sense problems that occurred in all your games, rather than the esoteric problems that top players find interesting, but which don't have much to do with the way you play backgammon? If so, then Understanding Backgammon is a book you'll like. Kit Woolsey and Tami Jones look at 101 problems that are typical of the situations that cause difficulties for advanced and intermediate players. Tami describes the positions through her eyes, and Kit, with his usual clarity, isolates the key features of the position and shows Tami the best way of visualizing the answer. Understanding Backgammon is a great problem collection and a great tool for taking your game to the next level.

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