{"id":352,"date":"2020-09-22T01:25:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T01:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/?p=352"},"modified":"2020-09-22T01:25:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T01:25:21","slug":"september-2020-online-backgammon-tournament-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"September 2020 Online Backgammon Tournament Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had another full 8-person bracket today, albeit with some last minute twists and turns. We had 10 people sign up, but then one backed out, then another, then a third, then one new person show up at the last minute. As a director, that\u2019s a whirlwind of emotions\u2026 Anyway, we ended up at 8, with 3 first timers and 5 returning players.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first match, I played Larry, who is one of the newcomers, although he\u2019s also an old timer. We talked about some of the people we\u2019ve played in common, but none apparently in the same decade. Hopefully that will change soon\u2026 I had good luck, and won, in spite of him significantly outplaying me.<\/span><\/p>\n

This position came up in one of our games, and is one of many, many examples I could have picked of checker play blunders. On the bar, rolling a 6-2 is a great piece of luck. Obviously the 2 is B\/23*, but I went fast with the 6 and played a blunder as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pic1\"<\/p>\n

23\/17* just looked obvious from a get-more-pips lead and momentum perspective, but it is worse than 11\/5* by -0.083! In retrospect, the potential prime built by slotting the 5 seems kind of obvious, but I played the move in about 2 seconds and didn\u2019t even think of alternatives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another position I misplayed, file under \u201cdoubles are hard!\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pic2\"<\/p>\n

Similar theme to the last one. 24\/21* pops up immediately, but what to do with the other 3 moves? Well, what do I really want here: a gammon. The best way to get that is to keep Larry on my ace point, and use the other 3 moves to play 13\/4*. Completely failed to even consider it – instead I let momentum take me 21\/18, then looked around for 2 more to play, eventually settling on 17\/11. Which looks kind of pretty, accomplished nothing much, and lost me -0.134 in equity!<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t only blow it through bad checker moves though – I also made plenty of cube errors. Here\u2019s a fun one. I\u2019m on the bar, holding the cube, closed board, and a blot to aim at. What\u2019s the cube action?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pic3\"<\/p>\n

I figured this to be a no double, as I\u2019m on the bar, and if I don\u2019t roll a 5, I\u2019m throwing away the match with the recube. Indeed, I\u2019m only 36.1% to win here – basically rolling 5\u2019s plus a few later shots if I dance. But it is a recube (and very easy take)! No double is a -0.119 blunder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesse went on to beat me 7-0 in the match, then faced off against Tim (Tim E, not Tim D) in the final. I watched the match online, and it was a good one. Here are a couple of other cube decisions that came up, which surprised me as they were playing.<\/span><\/p>\n

First off, in the first game, Jesse (white here) is on roll, and offered a cube. Would you have done the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pic4\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a surprisingly close one. He\u2019s up slightly in the race, but his position isn\u2019t great, with 3 checkers back. But he does have the threat of pointing on the checker on his 5 point, or doing a pick-and-pass. Tim snatched up the cube of course, as it is a narrow no double position: -0.011 error to double here. But I did not recognize how strong Jesse\u2019s position was. Only 59% to win, but 33% to gammon, makes this nearly a double, and probably worth time to think about the take.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, here\u2019s a position where Tim offered the cube. I assume his thinking was that with an even race, it is likely to be a take. But it\u2019s a clear too good situation!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pic5\"<\/p>\n

Position, race, and threat. Normal rule of thumb is if you have 2 of the 3, it\u2019s a double\/take. Here all Tim has is position, but he has a lot of it! Jesse lacks the timing to keep a strong home board for the eventually return shot, and Tim doesn\u2019t have a lot of gammons, but he\u2019s 88% to win, so there\u2019s no harm in playing on. Well, it worked out for him, as Tim went on to win the match and thus, the tournament. Congratulate him the next time you see him!<\/span><\/p>\n

-Mark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had another full 8-person bracket today, albeit with some last minute twists and turns. We had 10 people sign up, but then one backed out, then another, then a third, then one new person show up at the last minute. As a director, that\u2019s a whirlwind of emotions\u2026 Anyway, we ended up at 8, … Continue reading “September 2020 Online Backgammon Tournament Results”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pdxbg.club\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}