Forum Archive :
Books
Cooke & Orléan: Championship Backgammon
|
I just discovered that the local university library has a couple of old
books on backgammon. The first one that I've checked out is Championship
Backgammon by Barclay Cooke and René Orléan, published in 1980. This book
analyzes the first few games of a match that took place in London in 1973,
between Barclay Cooke and Walter Cooke on the American side, and Philip
Martyn and Joe Dwek on the British side. As one might expect, the play and
the analysis are way off the mark by modern bot standards, so I'm not going
to say much about that here.
What is most interesting to me is the format of the match. Curiously, the
book does not clearly lay out the rules for the match anywhere, but I was
able to infer most of them from Cooke's commentary. Barclay played Joe and
Walter played Philip. The most striking thing, in my view, is that they did
not play a "match to n games"; instead, they played a fixed number of games
(40 games each) and the score of each team was simply the sum of scores of
the two team members.
Another somewhat odd feature of the setup was that the players were kept in
the dark about the scoreboard of the other pair, except during breaks. That
is, for the first 15 games, Barclay and Joe had no idea what Walter and
Philip's scoreboard looked like, and vice versa. At the end of 15 games,
they took a break and were able to compare notes. There was a second break
after the end of the 30th game. Furthermore, the breaks did not occur at
the originally scheduled times; originally there was supposed to be just
one break at the halfway point, but they decided to try using duplicate
dice and this made the games take longer than they anticipated.
Match play strategy under these conditions is an interesting question. A
couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of having backgammon matches with
a fixed number of games, but someone (on rec.games.backgammon I think)
convinced me that it was a weak idea, because if one player took a runaway
lead then you would likely conclude with a series of boring games where the
trailer tries desperately to win an undoubled gammon from the outset (since
any double would be dropped to preserve the lead).
In the London match, the Americans did have a strong lead after the second
break. However, during the final 10 games, apparently the Brits did not try
the undoubled gammon strategy; instead, they just cashed their games
quickly. The book does not give the transcripts of the later matches or
even the scoreboard (it concentrates on the first 8 games of each player),
so it's hard to tell whether the cube strategy was correct or not.
Moreover, it's not completely clear what the correct cube action is when
you have imperfect information about the score (since you don't know how
well your partner is doing in the other room).
Anyway, I'm surprised that for such a high-profile match, these sorts of
details were apparently not thought through carefully. Was this sort of
setup for a match ever repeated? Was there ever a time when it was common
practice to play a fixed number of games in a match, rather than playing a
"match to n games" as is standard today? Finally, were the remaining games
of the London match ever published anywhere?
|
|
Marv Porten writes:
In "What Colour is the Wind" (7/2003 edition) Chris Bray says:
"The games were played in separate rooms .... The dice for both black
and white were thrown by a neutral referee and each roll was
communicated to both rooms. Once both rooms had completed their moves
the referee would roll again. He would continue to roll until the games
in both rooms were complete. Given the format a game could be over in
one room in three moves whilst in the second room the game might go on
for fifty moves. For this reason the format never became popular."
(page 182)
Author's note, page 183:
"After publication of the first edition of this book [What Colour is
the Wind] Jake Jacobs told me that David Dor-El, author of "The
Clermont Book of Backgammon", has the missing games [of the USA v UK
duplicate match] but also has an inflated estimate of their worth."
|
|
|
|
Books
- Bagai: Classic Backgammon Revisited (Gregg Cattanach, Feb 2002)
- Bagai: Classic Backgammon Revisited #100 (Raccoon, Nov 2004)
- Bagai: Classic Backgammon Revisited--Errata (Jeremy Bagai+, Apr 2005)
- Ball: Alpha Backgammon (James Takahashi+, May 1994)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A (Marty Storer, Jan 2008)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A (Mislav Radica, Nov 2007)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A (Rob Adams+, Oct 2007)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A (Gregg Cattanach, Oct 2007)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings Book A (Neil Kazaross+, Jan 2005)
- Ballard & Weaver: Backgammon Openings--Volunteers needed (Nack Ballard, June 2007)
- Barr: Barr on Backgammon (Walter Swan+, Feb 1996)
- Becker: Backgammon for Blood (Gus, Mar 2003)
- Becker: Backgammon for Blood (PTaber+, June 1999)
- Becker: Backgammon for Blood (Michael Fuhrmann, Aug 1997)
- Becker: Backgammon for Blood (Daniel Murphy, July 1997)
- Becker: Backgammon for Blood (Durf Freund+, May 1994)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (&Atilda;˜ystein Johansen+, Apr 2006)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (André Nicoulin, Oct 2000)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (David Montgomery, May 1999)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (Peter Bell, Aug 1998)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (Jacques Torrione, Feb 1998)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (Robert Scibelli, Dec 1997)
- Bell: Winning with the Doubling Cube (Kevin Bastian, Nov 1997)
- Bray: Backgammon for Blood (Chris Bray, Sept 2007)
- Bray: Backgammon to Win (Chris Bray, June 2007)
- Bray: Backgammon to Win, second edition (Chris Bray, Aug 2012)
- Bray: Backgammon--An Independent View (Chris Bray, May 1998)
- Bray: Backgammon--An Independent View Revisited (Chris Bray+, Jan 2005)
- Bray: Second Wind (Chris Bray, May 2007)
- Bray: What Colour is the Wind? (Chris Bray+, June 2002)
- Bray: What Colour is the Wind?--Rerelease (Chris Bray, Sept 2006)
- Brooks: Backgammon's Best Openings and Replies (Chuck Bower+, Dec 2004)
- Clay: Backgammon Winning Strategies (Michael Strato, Nov 1999)
- Clay: Backgammon Winning Strategies (Gary Wong, Jan 1998)
- Cooke & Bradshaw: Backgammon--The Cruelest Game (Chuck Bower+, Aug 1998)
- Cooke & Orléan: Championship Backgammon (Timothy Chow+, Apr 2011)
- Cooke & Orléan: Championship Backgammon (Marty Storer, Sept 2004)
- Cooke: Paradoxes and Probabilities (Neil Kazaross+, Sept 2004)
- Cooke: Paradoxes and Probabilities (Peter van Arkel+, Sept 2002)
- Cooke: Paradoxes and Probabilities (Donald Kahn, Dec 1998)
- Cooke: Paradoxes and Probabilities (Stephen Turner, Apr 1996)
- Corbett: Backgammon Problems (Stick+, Jan 2008)
- Deyong: The Playboy Book of Backgammon (Shuman Lloyd Lee, Aug 1991)
- Dwek: Backgammon for Profit (Bob Stringer, Sept 2002)
- Euler: Everyday Errors in Checker Play (BaronGossettEulerPhD+, June 2012)
- Garal: Fair Backgammon Tournament Rules (Jakob Garal, June 2007)
- Heinrich & Woolsey: New Ideas in Backgammon (Douglas Zare, Mar 2003)
- Heinrich & Woolsey: New Ideas in Backgammon (Craig E. Groeschel+, Sept 1998)
- Heinrich & Woolsey: New Ideas in Backgammon (David Montgomery, May 1997)
- Heyken & Fischer: The Backgammon Handbook (Martin Fischer, Sept 1998)
- Heyken & Fischer: The Backgammon Handbook (Marina Smith, Feb 1998)
- Hickey & Storer: What's Your Game Plan? (Timothy Chow, May 2011)
- Jacoby & Crawford: The Backgammon Book (Patrick Wilken, Aug 1991)
- Kansil: The Backgammon Quiz Book (Daniel Murphy, July 1997)
- Kansil: The Backgammon Quiz Book--Five problems (Chuck Bower, Oct 1997)
- Kennedy & Papazian: Backgammon Master Games (Ben Fairbank+, Apr 1999)
- Kershaw: Backgammon Funfair (Tom Keith+, July 2012)
- Kershaw: Backgammon Funfair (Peter Bennet, May 2012)
- Lamford: 100 Backgammon Puzzles (Harold Simon+, Oct 2001)
- Lamford: 100 Backgammon Puzzles (Mark Driver, July 2001)
- Lamford: 100 Backgammon Puzzles--Snowie analysis (Michael Schell, Oct 2001)
- Lamford: Improve Your Backgammon (Alef Rosenbaum, May 2003)
- Leet: Winning Backgammon (Ryan Long, Apr 2002)
- Leet: Winning Backgammon (MW Book Review, July 1999)
- Lortz: Double ... now: An Authentic Cube Remedy (Chuck Bower+, Jan 2004)
- Mabardi & Luce: Vanity Fair's Backgammon to Win (Paul Tanenbaum, Feb 1998)
- Magriel: Backgammon (Baldo+, Mar 2004)
- Magriel: Backgammon (Neil Kazaross, July 2003)
- Magriel: Backgammon (Chuck Bower, Nov 1999)
- Magriel: Backgammon (Dean Gay, Sept 1999)
- Magriel: Backgammon (David Montgomery+, Aug 1997)
- Magriel: Backgammon--2004 Edition (Tom Keith+, Dec 2004)
- Magriel: Backgammon--GnuBG evaluations (Randy, July 2008)
- Martyn: Phillip Martyn on Backgammon (Steve Brorens+, Nov 1996)
- Munchkin: Gambling Wizards (Chuck Bower, Aug 2003)
- Obolensky & James: Backgammon the Action Game (Edward D. Collins+, Oct 1999)
- Reese & Brinig: Backgammon: The Modern Game (Al Mirpuri+, Sept 2011)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Paul Epstein, July 2005)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Albert Silver, Nov 2002)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Tore Fredriksen, July 2002)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Erik M Sørensen, May 2000)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems (Daniel Hollis, May 2000)
- Robertie: 501 Essential Backgammon Problems #75 (Hardy Hübener+, Nov 2005)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon (Doni+, Jan 2005)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon (Scott Steiner+, Sept 2002)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon (James Eibisch, Jan 1998)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon (Allen R. Adams, Nov 1995)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon #165 (Peter Grotrian+, Mar 2005)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon--Errata (Matt Senecal+, Nov 2004)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon--JF rollouts (Øystein Johansen, June 2001)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon--JF rollouts (Alexander Nitschke, Feb 1997)
- Robertie: Advanced Backgammon--JF rollouts (Peter Fankhauser, Jan 1996)
- Robertie: Backgammon for Winners (Carl Tait, Aug 1998)
- Robertie: Backgammon for Winners (Gerry Tesauro, Oct 1993)
- Robertie: Modern Backgammon (Mattias+, Apr 2003)
- Robertie: Modern Backgammon (Gregg Cattanach, Oct 2002)
- Robertie: Modern Backgammon (Frank Mazza+, May 2002)
- Robertie: Reno 1986 (AH+, Aug 2007)
- Shiina: Cube Action 1000 (Mochy, Feb 2013)
- Steed: Backgammon: The Meanest Game (Albert Steg, Aug 1998)
- Stern: Backgammon: The Quick Course to Winning Play (Mark Driver, May 2001)
- Storer: Backgammon Praxis (Chase+, Apr 2007)
- Storer: Backgammon Praxis (Marty Storer+, May 2004)
- Thorne's Backgammon Tactics (Reprint) (Sam Sloan, July 2012)
- Tremaine: Amazing Book of Backgammon (Jim Wallace, Feb 1998)
- Trice: Backgammon Boot Camp--2nd edition (Jeremy Bagai+, June 2007)
- Tzannes brothers: Backgammon Games and Strategies (Mark Driver, Apr 2001)
- Tzannes brothers: Backgammon Games and Strategies (Albert Steg, May 1994)
- Tzannes brothers: How Good Are You at Backgammon? (Mark Driver, July 2001)
- Wiggins: Boards, Blots, and Double Shots (Ned Cross+, Mar 2004)
- Williams: Backgammon Live in London (Sean Williams+, June 2008)
- Woolsey & Beadles: 52 Great Backgammon Tips (Paul Epstein+, Dec 2007)
- Woolsey & Beadles: 52 Great Backgammon Tips (Mislav Radica+, Oct 2007)
- Woolsey & Jones: Understanding Backgammon (Jon Nall+, Feb 2004)
- Woolsey: How to Play Tournament Backgammon (John Bazigos, Oct 1994)
- Woolsey: The Backgammon Encyclopedia Vol 1 (Dean Gay+, Feb 2004)
From GammOnLine
Long message
Recommended reading
Recent addition
|
| |
|