Backgammon Book Suggestions

Book Suggestions

Best books from the bot era

From:   Chuck Bower
Address:   bower@astro.indiana.edu
Date:   6 November 2007
Subject:   Best BG book list
Forum:   BGonline.org

We've had quite a few BG books come out in the last 10 years or so. Which (if any) are classics? Here's an exercise. Break the backgammon community into five groups: 1. Beginner 2. Intermediate 3. Advanced 4. Open 5. Top 100 Name one "best" book for each category. Go ahead and name backups if you like, but please state which is your first choice in each category.

Matt Cohn-Geier writes:

Beginner: "Backgammon" by Magriel. Intermediate: "Backgammon Boot Camp" by Trice. Advanced: "Modern Backgammon" by Robertie. ("Advanced Backgammon" by Robertie is probably a good segue before "Modern Backgammon".) Open: "New Ideas in Backgammon" by Woolsey and Heinrich. Top 100: Do such books exist? I wrote about my experience with BG books in a long thread which is now at http://www.bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+1416. The relevant paragraph is: I read "Backgammon Praxis" (excellent), "Modern Backgammon" (excellent), "Backgammon with the Giants: Neil Kazaross" (good), "Boards, Blots, and Double Shots" by Wiggins (good), "Understanding Backgammon" (decent), "Tournament Backgammon" by Woolsey (mediocre), "Can a Fish Taste Twice as Good?" (too math-theoretical for my taste), the "MatchQiz" series by Woolsey (decent), "Vision Laughs at Counting" vol. 1 by Kleinman (okay, but disappointing), and "New Ideas in Backgammon" (excellent). Since then, I've read "Reno 86" and "Lee Genud vs. Joe Dwek", which are both pretty good books, but match analyses from the pre-bot era are something else. I forgot to give mention to Jeremy's "Classic Backgammon Revisited", which was also very good. "Can A Fish Taste Twice as Good?" has grown on me. I read "Vision Laughs at Counting" vol. 2 and "Double Sixes from the Bar", and Chris Bray's "Second Wind". I may come back to Kleinman because he seems to be the only person who discusses chouettes. And I've read Nack and Paul's book, "Backgammon Openings Book A", which is pretty good. So, I'll keep my eyes open for Top 100 level books, which I would love to have, if I knew of such things. Also, if anyone has or knows of any Ortega books (Fascinating Backgammon, Costa Rica 93/94, Jerry Grandell), I'd really like to read those.

Philippe Michel writes:

Beginner: Magriel's "Backgammon". There are probably good, more recent, beginners books, but are they really better than it? Intermediate: Magriel's "Backgammon". As a backup, "Advanced Backgammon", mostly for the basic double reference positions. Maybe Woolsey's "Encyclopedia" would be better for this (I haven't read it). Advanced: "Boot Camp". Everybody else seems to put it in the intermediate category, but I think that most of the book is quite advanced, or at least introductions to quite advanced matters. Open: "Modern backgammon". As a backup, the last 2 (maybe 3) years of "Inside Backgammon". Top 100: I'm not qualified to answer. Probably none. I don't think the difference between open tornament players (how many are there?) and top 100 is related to their respective reading.

Mislav Radica writes:

Great, I like this question! There is at least three main kinds of books in backgammon: Books with annotated matches, books about doubling cube and other backgammon books (mostly problems books). Maybe we should choose the best books from those three groups for all your categories. Where do we put the Ballard/Weaver book about Backgammon Openings? It is for all levels from high intermediate and up, so I'll put it in Open category. Since I am somewhere between "advanced" and "open", I will not consider which books are best for Top 100 players. I have no idea. I don't think books from before the bot era are appropriate reading nowadays. From my experience they only distract your game. Maybe after reading all the best books from bot era one can start to read old books with Bagai book in one hand and some bot in other. Magriel's Backgammon, Robertie's Advanced backgammon, Orthega's Costa Rica match books, Kleinman are all excellent books but I think it is important to get right the modern way of play first. Beginner: 1. Chris Bray: Backgammon for Win 2. Kit Woolsey/Patty Beadles: 52 great backgammon tips 3. Paul Lamford: Starting Out In Backgammon 4. Bill Robertie: Backgammon for Winners 5. Bill Robertie: Backgammon for Serious Players (match book) Intermediate: 1. Walter Trice: Backgammon Boot Camp 2. Bill Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems 3. Antonio Orthega/Danny Kleinman: Backgammon With the Giants (match book) 4. Kit Woolsey/Tami Jones: Understanding backgammon 5. Norm Wiggins: Boards, Blots and Double Shots Advanced: 1. Bill Robertie: Modern backgammon 2. Marty Storer: Backgammon Praxis (match books) 3. Kit Woolsey: Backgammon Encyclopedia Vol I (cube book) 4. Jeremy Paul Bagai: Classic Backgammon Revisited 5. Kit Woolsey: How to Play Tournament backgammon Open: 1. Kit Woolsey/Hal Heinrich: New Ideas In Backgammon 2. Nack Ballard/Paul Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A 3. Antonio Orthega/Danny Kleinman: Cubes and Gammons Near End of Match 4. Paul Lamford/Simon Gasquoine: Improve Your Backgammon 5. Bob Wachtel: In the Game Until the End

Mislav Radica writes:

Best Books from the Bot Era. There is no good short list of books which doesn't suffer from some fault. Here are the books that I think are the most significant books of the bot era. The bot era runs from approximately 1995 when Jellyfish first appeared. A good source of books, listed according to the year of publishing, can be found here: http://www.bkgm.com/books/pictures-by-date.html Here is my list: 1. Walter Trice: Backgammon Boot Camp (2004). While this books is suitable for intermediate players, there is full agreement that it is more advanced, so I put it as the first book one should read among these eight. You can find everything here. Checker play, many cube reference positions. Especially valuable chapters are those about cube handling in backgames and chapters about match play. 2. Bill Robertie: Modern Backgammon (2001). Best book by Robertie and the most accurate. It is only about checker play for money. There is also a comprehensive annotated match between Grandell and Ballard. It is interesting how Robertie explains the reasons behind modern bot-like play. 3. Kit Woolsey: Backgammon Encyclopedia, Vol I (2002). This book desperately needs Vol II, which the author announced after publishing. I don't know if this is still planned, but the BG community needs more reference cube positions which this book proudly presents in it's whole content. 4. Marty Storer: Backgammon Praxis, Vol I&II (2005) The best book(s) with world class matches. With great graphical presentation, players' comments, and extensive rollouts, the setup is a new standard for such books. I also like Kit Woolsey's special annotated 21-point match between Ken Arnold/Kit Woolsey and Nack Ballard/Harvey Huie in 2001 Pro-AM Semi- finals which can be find here: http://www.gammonu.com/members/May01/match/index.html All the OLM matches, with Kit's comments and Snowie rollouts are recommended too: http://gammonu.com/members/online/snowie 5. Nack Ballard/Paul Weaver: Backgammon Openings, Book A (2007) We have been waiting a long for this book. Along with upcoming volumes from the same series, it will be invaluable material. 6. Jeremy Paul Bagai: Classic Backgammon Revisited (2001). This problem book is significant because it corrects the biggest errors from classic books and I recommend you use along with a bot when you plan to read the classics. 7. Kit Woolsey/Hal Heinrich: New Ideas In Backgammon (1996). Definitely the most advanced practical BG book. Still very accurate nowadays if you know that authors used Jellyfish rollouts. Excellent explanations by Kit. Problems are exceptions to the usual rules of thumb and they are taken from real matches as errors which world class players made. 8. Antonio Ortega/Danny Kleinman: Cubes and Gammons Near the End of the Match (1997). Book completely devoted for cube handling in matches. Kit Woolsey's "How to Play Tournament Backgammon" is about same topic but much shorter. We still wait for great book about cube handling in matches which will increase level of play for many advanced and open players.

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