The New York Times Book of Backgammon, by James Oswald Jacoby, Mary Zita Jacoby

Backgammon Books

The New York Times Book of Backgammon

AUTHORS: James Oswald Jacoby
Mary Zita Jacoby

YEAR: 1973

PUBLISHER: A Plume Book, New American Library

CITY: New York

ISBN: 0-452-25492-7

BINDING: Softcover

PAGES: iii+175

SIZE: 20 cm high, 14 cm wide

OTHER
EDITIONS: Hardcover

READERS
COMMENTS:

"This book has a lot of the same strategies as Oswald Jacoby's 1970 classic. The book is in easy-to-use lessons and tracks four sample games through early, middle, and end games. There are special lessons on back games, end games, and other miscellaneous situations. Novices and average players will learn a lot from this book. If you're looking for a short book that you can learn the fundamentals from in a hurry, this may be the one."—Reader from the United States, Customer Review at Amazon.com, March 2000

CONTENTS:

FORWARD by Oswald Jacoby
PREFACE
LESSON I So You Want to Play Backgammon
LESSON II The Running Game
LESSON III The First Move
LESSON IV The Reply to the First Move
LESSON V Let's Play Some Backgammon (The Early Game)
LESSON VI The Arithmetic of Backgammon
LESSON VII Doubles and Redoubles
LESSON VIII Let's Play Some More Backgammon (The Middle Game)
LESSON IX Finishing the Running Game
LESSON X Finishing One-Sided Games
LESSON XI Back Games and Special Problems
LESSON XII Chouettes and Settlements
APPENDIX A Pip Count
APPENDIX B The Laws of Backgammon
GLOSSARY

COVER: Backgammon—as exciting as the roll of the dice, as intellectually satisfying as a winning game plan. The reaons for the age-old fascination and the spectacular new surge of popularity of backgammon are not hard to find. Perhaps no other game so intriguingly mirrors life in its unique blending of skill and chance, artful design and sudden fluctuations of fortune. In it the player stands midway between being master of his fate and the puppet of forces beyond his control, and though expertise will generally win out, not even the greatest player is totally secure.
Written by the world's number-one backgammon family, this book is invaluable to both the beginner and the advanced player. It explains every facet of this most ancient of games.

ABOUT THE
AUTHORS: Mary Zita Jacoby may or may not be the best woman backgammon player in the world but she certainly is the best teacher—male or female.
James Oswald Jacoby is principally known as a bridge player. He is the only man under forty to ever acquire over 10,000 master points and, in addition, has managed to pick up three world championships.
In spite of this, backgammon is his favorite game, He has done well in the few tournaments he has had a chance to play in, and in my slightly prejudiced opinion is now as good at the game as anybody, anywhere.
In the last year Mary Zita has been teaching backgammon class after backgammon class. She needed lessons to do this teaching and Jim and I helpd her prepare a set.
It occurred to me that there was material in these lessons for a book. I wanted to write it but my wife and son put their feet down and said that I had done enough writing.
Then they went ahead and produced this book—a series of lessons that will enable beginners to learn the game quickly, that will help good players become experts, and even give the greatest experts a chance to add to their knowledge of the game!
I am proud of them and believe firmly that they have written the best backgammon book of all time.
Oswald Jacoby
Dallas, Texas