Forum Archive : Terminology

"Blunder", "whopper" From:   Raccoon Address:   racgammon@yahoo.com Date:   30 July 2005 Subject:   Whoppers, Blunders and Errors. Oh my. Forum:   GammOnLine The bkgm glossary now defines blunder = whopper = 0.100 error. (1) But discussion in r.g.bg reminds us that "blunder" is a subjective term. Every player following the good advice to "concentrate on eliminating blunders from your game" will have a different threshold of what constitutes a blunder. Michael Zehr once announced a series of posts of "blunder" positions using a threshold of 0.040. For his series of problems on his website, Alan "Webby" Webb used a threshold of 0.050. David Montgomery once wrote (somewhere -- I couldn't track it down) something like "0.050 errors? oh no -- we don't want to make those!" (2) "Blunder" seems to have been popularized by Snowie. The blunder threshold in v3 (or v2? v1?) was set to 0.110. But the term must have already been in use; has anyone any references predating Snowie? I seem to recall thinking then that 0.110 was overly generous but I may be mistaken. The earliest googleable cite for "blunder" in rec.games.backgammon dates back to a Feb 2, 1998 post by Donald Kahn. (3) The first use of "whopper" in rec.games.backgammon to mean a huge play error occurred January, 2000: "With 8-2, he says opponent should not even double, equity .40. This big an error is known as a 'whopper.'"--Donald Kahn, Jan. 28, 2000 Other whopper combo cites: Jørn Thyssen, May 15, 2000: [play that is a 0.139 error is] "a big whopper" Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Aug. 22, 2000: "And if I'm wrong I'll enjoy my whopper and milkshake (blunders>0.10)" Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Sep. 10, 2000: "so I might be wrong, perhaps even into whopper blunder area" Gregg Cattanach, Jan 7, 2001: "Your move didn't even come up in the top 20 for Snowie, and analyzes as a double whopper with cheese." Zorba, Dec. 10, 2003: [play that is a 0.387 error is] "almost a quadruple Whopper" I suspect the GOL archives from that time, if they were searchable, would show where the above mentioned posters first saw the term. The early cites for "whopper" in r.g.bg lead me to think that Magriel is in fact responsible for making backgammon the home of the whopper, perhaps by using the term in one or more of the lectures he gave on the tournament circuit. Mary Hickey  writes: "Blunder" seems to have been borrowed from the chess world, which was already using the term back when I played in high school. And its use predated my taking up the game--they didn't invent it for me (or at least I don't think they did!) Perry Gartner  writes: Some time prior to 2000, Paul Magriel told me that he had coined a term to denote a Snowie .10 error, a "whopper". A whopper with chesse exceeded .10 and a double whopper was .20. Donald Kahn was a student of Paul's. I recall Paul saying at the time, in order to improve his own error rate, he focused in depth on his .10 and higher errors. In depth to Paul meant that he understood the position,knew where the "meat" (his expression) was coming from,and was capable of successfully tackling the common variations of the position.   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Terminology

Alphabet soup  (Tom Keith, Apr 2004) 

"Anchor and guard" position  (Chase+, Apr 2010) 

"Back game"  (Marty Storer, Jan 2004) 

"Baffle box"  (garyo+, Mar 2005) 

"Bagai position"  (Timothy Chow, Dec 2012) 

"Banana split"  (Rich Munitz+, June 2011) 

"Banana split"  (Adam Stocks+, Sept 2004) 

"Beavers"  (Sander van Rijnswou, May 1999) 

"Beavers"  (Shuman Lloyd Lee, Aug 1991) 

"Blunder", "whopper"  (Raccoon+, July 2005) 

"Bot"  (Pit Bull+, Mar 2004) 

"Bronstein" clock setting  (rew+, Sept 2012) 

"Calcutta auction"  (Roland Scheicher+, Dec 2001) 

"Chouette"  (Roland Scheicher+, Mar 2002) 

"Cube provocation play"  (Chuck Bower+, Apr 2007) 

"Dance"  (William R. Tallmadge, May 1998) 

"Dropper"  (Robert D. Johnson, Sept 1996) 

"Duplication" and "diversification"  (Simon Woodhead, Nov 1991) 

"Equity"  (Gregg Cattanach, Aug 2000) 

"Equity"  (Gary Wong, Dec 1998) 

"Equity"  (Chuck Bower, Oct 1996) 

"Equity"  (Michael J. Zehr, Mar 1996) 

"Equity", "volatility", "claim", "market"  (Erik Gravgaard, June 1995) 

"Freeroll"  (montygram, Nov 2005) 

"Gammon price"  (Ron Karr, Aug 1996) 

"Gammon rate", "gammon price"  (David Montgomery, June 1995) 

"Gammon-go" (GG) and "gammon-save" (GS)  (Mary Hickey, Feb 2004) 

"Gammon-go" (GG) and "gammon-save" (GS)  (Marty Storer, Oct 2002) 

"Gammon-go" (GG)   (Chuck Bower, Jan 2004) 

"Golden point"  (Daniel Murphy, Dec 2004) 

"Holding game"  (Alan Webb+, Dec 1998) 

"In the box"  (Ken Bame+, Sept 2012) 

International phrase dictionary  (David Allen Sorensen, Sept 1997) 

"Joker"  (Richard Divdesman, Sept 1998) 

"Kamikaze play"  (Bill Patterson+, June 2011) 

"Kauder paradox"  (Carl Tait+, Nov 1995) 

"Latto paradox"  (Jean-Pierre Seiman+, July 2004) 

"Lose your market"  (Shuman Lloyd Lee+, Aug 1991) 

"MCV"  (Mislav Radica+, Oct 2009) 

"PRaT"  (Raccoon+, Jan 2007) 

"Phantom double hit"  (Marty Storer, May 2010) 

"Polish prime"  (Jason Lee+, Jan 2006) 

"Pure play"  (Daniel Murphy, Nov 2000) 

"Pure play"  (Casey Forrest+, Feb 1996) 

"Raccoon"  (Steven Keats, Feb 2011) 

"Root number"  (Ken Bame, June 2004) 

"Russian Bridges"  (leobueno+, Mar 2013) 

"Short play"  (AJ+, July 2012) 

"Speed board"  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2004) 

"Splot"  (mamabear, Apr 2007) 

"Squeeze", "trap play"  (Philippe Michel+, Feb 1997) 

"Suicide play"  (Brian Sheppard, Aug 1997) 

"Swing tournament"  (Carlo Melzi+, Mar 2006) 

"Table stakes"  (Carlo Melzi, Sept 2002) 

"Technical play"  (Adam Stocks+, July 2002) 

"Thematic"  (Beauregard+, Aug 2009) 

"Thorp count"  (Stephen Turner, June 1996) 

"Time," "timing," "checker," "dancing"  (Marty Storer, Apr 1992) 

Turkish names for rolls  (Lars Soezueer, Mar 1997) 

"Vigorish"  (Anthony R Wuersch, Feb 1995) 

"Volatility"  (Michael J. Zehr, June 1998) 

"Wash"  (Hardy Hübener+, Sept 2004) 

"Wash"  (Brian Sheppard, July 1997) 

"Weaver"  (Alan Webb+, May 2000) 

"Zone" of attack  (Matt Reklaitis+, Dec 2007) 

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