Forum Archive : Terminology

"Zone" of attack From:   Matt Reklaitis Date:   11 December 2007 Subject:   10 in the zone Forum:   GammOnLine I'm wondering where/when the importance of "10 in the zone" originated. It feels as if its a relatively recent analytical description. Are there articles (or a chapter of a book?) contrasting positions with 10 in the zone? MandM1951  writes: I've seen the Zone referred to often. But I admit that I don't know exactly what the zone is. Can someone define it? Thanks. Ken  writes: Here is the best definition that I have seen: "zone of attack": the area that includes opponent's inner board and any points within six pips of an unmade inside point. Chuck Bower  writes: After corresponding with Ilia Guzei on this, here is my current theory: "The Zone" was discussed in Trice's Boot Camp. Ilia noticed with bot study that 9 wasn't nearly as threatening as 10. The "10 in the Zone" threshold developed from that study and was popularized on the GammOnLine forum. Perry Gartner  writes: The Zone idea and 10 in the Zone concept comes from Wilcox Snellings. Wilcox played at the Coterie in New York in the late 80's and 90's and that's where he explained it to me and others. He mentions the concept in one of the articles he published but I can't locate a copy of it at the moment. He did co-author a unrelated article with Walter Trice in the Flint Backgammon News in May 1992. For those that don't know of Wilcox, for many years he was considered one of the best if not the best in the game, and he was voted tops or close to the tops in the Giant's poll at the time. He was considered the leading practitioner in the game of what one might refer to as the "quantitative" approach as compared to resolution by "concept". He had the uncanny over the board ability to work out equity estimates of 3 or 4 variations of a position doing as many as 4 calculations per position. He was among the first that did extensive work before bots, in determining equities in a large number of garden variety middle game reference positions. I recall one year at the Vegas tournament he handed out a quiz, taken by many of the leading player's there, which required an equity evaluation of each of the positions on the quiz. Wilcox Snellings  writes: (July 2011) "Checkers in the zone": I could have said that first, but more likely Paul Magriel first said that or something close enough. I know I rolled out enough blitz variations to greatly appreciate the importance of having men to work with relative to your opponent's position on the other side, whether your blitz had some prime back-up, etc.   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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