Forum Archive :
Book Suggestions
What's a good second book?
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I bought Bill Robertie's book, Backgammon For Serious Players, and I
found it to be excellent. Now i need more, but i'm not sure which book to
go to next. Some one please help. I need a book that will help me
correctly evaluate when to double, when to take doubles, exact
probabilities or recurring situations like race-offs and elaborate on many
of the important issues that Robertie covers in his book.
I have been trying to decide between Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's book,
New Ideas in Backgammon; Robertie's books 501 Essential Backgammon Problems
and Advanced Backgammon V I and II; and Paul Magriel's book Backgammon from
1985.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Tommy
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Alan Webb writes:
My order of purchase was Robertie serious players, Backgammon (Magriel),
New Ideas in Backgammon (Kit Woolsey), Roberties Advanced Backgammon Vol 1.
And I'm just about through Roberties "501 essential backgamm positions"
(btw. anyone rolled them out yet? I'm not sure if the author did before
publication)
Another book worth considering I think is How to win tournament backgammon
(?) by Kit Woolsey. Lots of cube strategy for match play apparently. (Did I
already mention it's Cristmas soon? :-)
All the books listed do delve into cube handling. (less so Magriels
Backgammon, but a must have anyway imo.) Roberties 501 has many cube
problems which are well explained. Paul Lamfords "Improve your game" is
well worth the paltry 5$ it costs as well (I loved the PRAT anagram.)
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Bob Stringer writes:
They're pricey, but Kit Woolsey's MatchQiz disks (which I
recommend in DOS -- on floppies, rather than in Snowie mode) are
terrific. Aside from the education, it's simply fun to re-play
some very fine games and listen to what Kit has to say about them.
Doesn't address your specific question about doubles, recurring
situations, etc. What they do show is how a game evolves and how
a great player thinks about it. Similar to Kit's annotations at
GammOnLine. So, if you don't want to pay a lot, subscribe to GOL
and view the annotated monthly matches, and well as the continuing
online match.
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Douglas Zare writes:
I agree with what others have said, but I would like to point out that if
the only other backgammon book you have read is _Backgammon for Serious
Players_ then the choices you mention are all possibilities except for the
first one. _New Ideas in Backgammon_ is great for someone who already knows
the things you say you would like to learn plus a lot more, but it assumes
that you already know what the usual theory is. It shows you how experts
can make "mistakes" in certain positions that computer programs get right.
However, I would first worry about making gross blunders by not knowing the
standard ideas.
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Book Suggestions
- After Magriel (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen+, Aug 2000)
- Annotated matches (Walter Trice, Jan 2000)
- Best books from the bot era (Chuck Bower+, Nov 2007)
- Best next step (Gregg Cattanach+, July 2002)
- Bibliography (Carl Tait, Apr 2000)
- Books for advanced players (Edward D. Collins, June 2003)
- Books for serious players (Douglas Zare, Feb 2003)
- Books on match play (Keene Marin+, Sept 2005)
- Buyer's guide (Chuck Bower, Feb 1998)
- How to read backgammon books (Gary Wong, Jan 1998)
- Ideal book on backgammon (Laury Chizlett, Apr 2000)
- Informal book survey (Chuck Bower+, Dec 2005)
- John Bazigos's suggestions (Mika Johnsson, July 1993)
- Magriel, Robertie, and Kleinman (Gregg Cattanach, May 2000)
- Marty Storer's reading list (Larry Hunter, May 1992)
- Recommended Backgammon Books (Butch Meese, Jan 1984)
- Survey of some available books (William Hill, Jan 1998)
- Three underrated books (Mary Hickey, July 2003)
- What's a good second book? (Tommy+, Dec 2000)
- Which book by Chris Bray should I buy? (Timothy Chow+, July 2012)
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