Backgammon Strategy 101: Expert Chris Bray Teaches the Game of War
Chris Bray Fina[00:00:00]
Chris: You are white, you can tell me what to do and tell me why you're doing it.
167 Pips. Yeah.
Arthur: Okay. 167. Okay. I'm gonna start my move by moving the 13 five and then I'm gonna move the 24 by two.
Chris: Alright? Yep. That's fine. So
Arthur: bring it on. Arthur V Chris, there
Chris: you go.
Arthur: This could be the surprise of the century.
Chris: So I've got a role of six one, which is a no brainer, I just make the bar point.
Arthur: Okay? Okay. Being at war. Okay. Four and two. I'm gonna move the eight four and then the six two.
Chris: Okay. Making the four point, so in any backgammon position, you have a choice. And there was a very significant choice for that as to whether you should play 24 20 and 22, 20. Making my five point. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So a great thing. I think [00:01:00] I've
Arthur: made a mistake there that you have, I rushed that, and then
Chris: you'll see that extreme Gamon has decided it's giving you the option to reconsider your move.
Okay. We're playing in tutor mode. That means it's teaching as it goes. So let's play what you played. Okay. And then in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, oops, let's just go back here. You'll see all of the possible moves listed from best to worse.
Arthur: Interesting.
Chris: And this is how we learn. So anything in black is a good move. Anything in green is slightly dubious and anything in red is what black government players call a blunder. And the way to be successful at black government is to avoid blunders. . So you're okay. You made okay, you made an error six three now.
So I, I've got choices. So before you make any move, you look [00:02:00] at the candidates and really, there are three candidates here, so let me show you so I can do this. But the loose hit risky is something that beginners are not very keen on. Yeah, I can do this. Yeah. Yeah. And finally. I can do this now.
You already have, or I already have a blocking structure on the other side of the board. And this, I believe it is the right move, so I'm just gonna run away. But it might not be, but it is. So if you look at the top left, my move is in. . So now you are on roll again and you've got a very awkward four one.
Arthur: . So I will be doing a so my logic is initially I'm tempted to move the 24 by four. And then the 22 by one. But then I'm just thinking you are quite, you are just gonna be [00:03:00] thinking, I wanna hit this guy. My intuition is to not do that
Chris: well, you can't create what we call an anchor, so you can't safety the two white blocks that are in my own board.
So four one's a pretty dreadful role
yeah.
Chris: But there's at least five moves worth of consideration here.
Arthur: So I'm currently in my head looking at two options. Yeah. Option one is moving the 13 by five. Yeah. And then option two is moving 13 by four and then moving either the Yeah, probably the 24 by one.
Which I'm actually, i'm not gonna do, I'm gonna play it safe. I'm gonna move the four and the one to number eight. So yeah,
Chris: right now I look at that position and I actually like the first move that you suggested. Yeah. So we'll make the move, but this will be close just because of the type of position that we're in.
And there you go. So it'll say, [00:04:00] see, hint that's another option. So your, the first move that you suggested is absolutely fine. . The problem with 13 eight, which is what you played it, is just too passive. It doesn't enhance the position. . And in the opening, you're trying to get your checkers to work.
So backgammon is a representation of war, and you consider the 15 checkers as soldiers. So you just move a soldier from one safe place to another and done nothing to potentially develop the position. Next turn and. Most beginners, intermediates are too passive. So violence might, it might not be a good thing in the world in general is a very good thing in background.
Yeah, so
Arthur: interesting.
Chris: Here we go. I play Anyway. Alright. Three, two again. So now I've got two choices. I can hit both your checkers
[00:05:00] and just do that. And the second play is just to do that. . After which I'll be three pips up in the race you're not really threatening anything, so you try not to put checkers on your ace point too early. But this will distract you. You'll have to use all of your move to get your checkers back into the field of play.
So that will be close. Now again, if you follow my violence principle. This would be the play. Yeah. And in fact, it is the play. Yeah. Which is the right play. So the difference between backgammon now and the backgammon 50 years ago now I've made a move and I can chat whether it's the right move or not.
50 years ago, I would make the move and I would have no idea whether it was right or not. So progress was very slow until the advent of computers. Yeah. So my other, and I think yeah. The other move, which is 15 to 10 is just passive. [00:06:00] So activity is great. So now I rolled, I fit two checkers and you've only come in with one.
So if you look at the pip counts on four pips up. I've got a slight edge. Yeah. Because I'm threatening your other block in my board. And what we also do is count the number of checkers in the attack zone. Now the attack zone goes from your one point to your 11 point. So I have got nine checkers in my attack zone.
So Ace is too few. 10 or 11 is great. Nine's all right. Yeah. So I look at this position, I decide you've got a better home board than I've got. And I'm not really threatening anything, so I'm not going to double.
Arthur: Interesting.
Chris: And now I roll five, four. Now my life gets interesting. So I, again, I loads of options here. I can make the ace point and hit again. I could make the three point like this. [00:07:00] Now I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 blocks spread around the board. Yeah. I can do just run for home. I've got a lead in the race and if you don't roll a one, I'm looking good.
Yeah. Yeah. Does this as a possible move as well. So that move advances the last rear chatter and connects its to its friend in your out of order.
So I think it's quite close as to what one does here. I'm gonna go with this. So notice also the fundamental principle of back dam or one of the fundamental principles is duplication. So you need a three to enter and make a point in my home board, but you also need a three to hit the checker on your 10 point, my 15 point.
And you also need a three to hit from your. 8.5 points. So that's not only duplication, it's [00:08:00]triplication. So I'm feeling better about my move, but it may not be right. And it isn't No see, hint and it just, running for home is correct. So I've just made a blunder. So the point about running for home is if I escape successfully, I'm a long way towards winning the game.
So now you roll five, four, which is another really uncomfortable role.
Arthur: Okay. I think I know what I want to do. Yeah. Which is I want to come in on the. I want to come in on the four and then I move the, wanna move the 13 point, the five.
My logic there is because if I come in on the, if I try and run with one of them, I end up leaving a, leaving it in point.
I think it's like 16. Yeah. And statistically you are very likely to hit be able to hit me. Yeah. With either your 10 or 12.
Chris: Yes. So what [00:09:00] you desperately need is an anchor in my board. And by coming in on the four point, if there's a bunch of hitting, you've got two potential places to make an anchor, right?
So you are right. If I come out, you come out here and I've got six and falls to hit. And that's 26 rolls will hit plus no, that's all 26 rolls. Plus I have numbers that point in board. The other point about the move is if you do this, now you've got a candle stick. You've got five checkers on the eight point and nothing much has happened to those checkers.
The other move to consider therefore is the four here and slop the three point with a five with the intent of building that point and strengthening your home board next time.
So that's,
Arthur: I'm gonna guess that this is gonna be an error.
Yeah. See, hint. Oh, and there's
Chris: the other option. Okay. So slotting the three point was Okay. Yeah. There [00:10:00] none of them are bad, but best is this Yeah.
Arthur: Can I just make a comment here? Yeah. So it's funny 'cause looking back at the first blunder, I'm excited about the game. I'm just so used to moving the piece, the pieces from the eight and six.
Yeah. Hence why I did what I did. But it's and it's clear that, and I think this is just common of like how the brain works. We're used to just being lazy. Our minds just want to make the, we immediately jumped to the obvious things. Yeah. And actually this is a really good example of this role where it's not obvious, at least to someone of my level, to move and try and spread out that the pieces from the a Do you have any views or advice on, in terms of just what one, to how to switch from being not well in some ways lazy, but just thinking, try, thinking outside the box and not rushing to a decision?
Yeah.
Chris: So your [00:11:00] intuition was effectively to play safe which we called Middle East back gallon, because that is often the way that. In the cafes in the Middle East that ham has played. You play safe and then suddenly you find everything collapses in a heat because you restricted your options so much that you have to leave a series of exposed checkers which then get hit.
So that, to go back to the analogy at the start, this is a war game and the soldiers have to do something useful. Yeah. Yeah. And none of the moves that you look at here are a disaster. Yeah. But let's, yeah, I'll try and show you hopefully what happens if you do this right. Anyway. Five, three. So lots of, so I've got two, two basic choices here.
One, play A, making the 10 point and play B pointing on you, which leaves me [00:12:00] with a sort of ugly structure. Normally hitting is correct, but that just doesn't look very attractive. Yeah. But obviously you got this as a move, but again, that just leaves a blot exposed to a six. There's an old adage in backgammon when in doubt hit.
Yeah. Okay, we're gonna follow the adage and see what it says. Whenever it takes a long time. Yeah. Then it's going to Yeah. So the other move is correct, so that's fine. But it was a good demonstration. So older adages aren't always correct.
Arthur: Five and three. Okay. So moving your pieces to the 15 Yeah. Is the correct one. Yeah. But
Chris: now you've rolled five, three.
Arthur: Oh, okay. And
Chris: this is easy. Yeah.
Arthur: To, to. To hit. Yeah. And my and part of the logic that I'm just thinking off the top of my head here, but is if I hit you at number 17 [00:13:00] rather than number 10, yeah.
You've got a higher penalty. I'm bringing you back further. Is that correct?
Chris: Yes. Was a number of other things. So to hit on the 10 point, you have to give up the 13 point, which is called the midpoint. And one of the sorts of basic principles of backgammon is that you do not give up the midpoint whilst you've still got checkers in your opponent's home board, unless you have to.
Obviously there are cases when you have to, but here hitting on the 17 point, it's crystal clear. You gain in the race, you keep the midpoint. So this is right one six. Now you can see how badly my previous move cost me. So now I'd be looking very good, but in this position, I'm looking very bad.
Six is awful. I'll just keep the duplication of threes and now you are on roll.
Arthur: Okay,
Chris: here you go. 6 2,
so again, [00:14:00] go background is a game of pattern recognition. So that's why you don't get child prodigies. Yeah. Yeah, because you need a library of positions in your brain that you can call up and a series of algorithms and rules by which you play. So yeah, I look at this position and in an instant I can see the right move.
Arthur: So it's funny. And just to illustrate going back to our previous conversation, how different brains work. I've always noticed, for example a bit frustrating, but I often I need to literally count each time. Yeah. I move pieces. Whereas friends just move them.
But the move that looks right from where I sit is 21, moving the 21 6 and then 17. Yeah.
Chris: So now you've made a point, you've advanced the rear checkers, right? Your checkers also communicate with each other, meaning that none of them are too far apart from any of the others. And that's another guiding principle for that G.
So that was correct. [00:15:00] Now I get five, two, so I can make this point with the five. Now the question then is do I advance the back checker right or not? So the five is clear
I'm still going to be a little bit behind in the race. After this move, I'll be four pips down on the pip count and the checker on the 24 point is called a goalkeeper.
Yeah, the goalkeepers are very useful because they stop you dumping checkers in your home board safely. So I suspect that the two is this starting a new point. So the two five points are the two most important points on the board and you want to make them as early as you can here. I've started my five points and I hope to be able to weld the two next time to cover it.
Arthur: That's interesting 'cause when I was looking at it initially, I was thinking for you, you would wanna move that 24. Yeah. But actually the value add isn't that high. [00:16:00] Because your other piece is already at, I think at my five or whatever, it's doing
Chris: a great job, basically that check on.
It's also under no threat because you've only got one number that hits it directly.
Okay,
Chris: so now you've rolled six two again.
Arthur: Again, there's only one right move in this position, if that helps you. Ah, yeah. I, yeah, I think it does. Yeah. Okay. I think I see it now. It's moving the 15, two and then six. Yeah.
Chris: Okay. Another fundamental principle about going, went ahead in the race. Race. So you are ahead, if you look in the bottom right and corner, you are now 12 pips ahead.
So four, two, that's gonna be very clear.
The two is gonna be two, and again, the rear cha is staying where it is. And I'll just bring another chaker down. So I'm trying, firstly, I'm trying to escape the rear chaker if I roll the lucky rolls. Secondly, I'm trying to strengthen my board. So the next point I want to make is my four point. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. [00:17:00]
Chris: Now you roll again. 4, 3,
Arthur: 4 and three. Okay. That's looking obvious in my, yeah, it is my first. Yeah. Okay, fine. Let's do that. So 16 and 17.
Chris: Yeah. So now you've made the best you will have made when I get the software to work. So that's a huge improvement in white's position. Yeah. Nice.
Arthur: And there's a bridge there now, isn't it? Yeah,
Chris: sorry. Sometimes the software glitches now six two. So now I'm behind in the race. I don't want the race. I'm certainly not moving the rear checker. I'm certainly not moving the checkers on the 15 point because they're getting in the way. Therefore, by process of elimination,
Arthur: I'm going to do this.
Sorry. Why aren't you moving the fifteens?
Chris: That's interesting. Ah, okay. Interesting. Alright, [00:18:00] so ignore that. Let's just go back one, can I go back? Yeah, so I'm bl, I'm blundering here because, so I wanted to keep the goalkeeper, but realistically a checker on its own is subject eventually to attack.
And this is quite interesting. So at the moment, I'm 13 pips behind. If I do this, I'm five Pips behind, right? If you roll a four, you'll probably win the game, right? Because I'll then be on the bar, you'll be ahead in the race and all sorts of things. But if you don't roll a four, then yes, you are ahead, but you're not ahead by much.
If I, so let's just go back. If I make the other play. I'm still landed with the problem of trying to escape the checker back on the 24 point, which is looking increasingly lonely. So sometimes in background you have to accept a slightly poorer [00:19:00] position in the knowledge that all the other moves are worse.
And doing that is very difficult because people hate getting into a marginally losing position when it looks as if you could play safe. So we're gonna play the running play 'cause I want to see if you managed to roll the four
Arthur: fine. And actually, doesn't that link to sunk cost theory where people just, people don't like to swallow losses basically.
Chris: The most important thing you can ever do in backgammon is learn to lose because you are going to lose a lot of games in your life. It's not like chess where if you are very good, you hardly ever lose. Games like Backgammon it's all about percentages. So if I can win 60% of the games that I play, I'd be a very rich man.
Yeah.
So I
Arthur: think Federer, Roger Federer was saying how he's won 52% of his shots. Yeah. All points.
Chris: So the London League has been running for 20 years. Richard [00:20:00] said London back, gambles League, various clubs in London. I have won 70% of my matches. Which is pretty good. But then this is not a high quality league.
If you look at other leagues that I play and I'll be hovering around 52, 50 3%, but that 3% edge is enough. It's like being in a casino or casino owner. The zero and the double zero are enough of an edge for you to end up a winner in the in the long term. And you just have to accept that.
Okay.
Chris: Alright,
here we go again.
Chris: Ah, now, sorry, I was talking. So here for the first time, we have a position where doubling should be considered. Yeah. Yeah. So your white, would you double?
Arthur: Yes.
Chris: Okay. So your five pips head in the race, which is good. You also have a threat. You are threatening to hit that loose checker on your nine point.[00:21:00]
So do you know how many roll hit it?
Arthur: Would, there were 36,
Chris: 36 possible roles in background.
Arthur: Would there be 1, 2, 3, 4 four roles?
Chris: So a long way wider than Mark. So to roll, if you have two dice and you want to roll a number, in this case, a four, right? 11 of 36 rolls will contain a four
11.
Chris: 11, yeah.
Okay.
Chris: In addition to that, you've also got double two hits. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So you'll hit the checker one third of the time, 12 out of the 36, 12. So that threat in conjunction with the fact that you are already winning the race makes this a double. So now we offer
Arthur: And if I was playing professionally I'd want the points I'd know You probably wouldn't [00:22:00] accept that and then No.
You would
Chris: accept it. So
Arthur: you, that you would
Chris: Yes. This is, so if you look at this, so you are gonna double, right? And I'm going to take, and then we look at, you can look at the percentage figures and go back and look at it on the bottom left hand corner. So you'll win 70% of the time. You'll win 7% Gammons, but I will win 30% of the time.
And if fundamental doubling theory, which we're not going to try and explain today you can take a double provided you have a 25% chance of winning ignores, gammons and a few other things. But the fundamental rule of the use of the doubling cube is that to accept a double, you must be able to win approximately 25% of the time.
So here, I've got a very easy take.
Okay, now you've right, you've now rolled six one, you've missed the four, right? So now we're gonna get into a pure race. Yeah. So
Arthur: what do I move with the okay, so with that I wanna move 13. 13, [00:23:00] and then I move the eight one.
Chris: And then you stick it in. Now you don't want to make the bar point, so you are now, you can't take your checkers off until you've got them in.
So making the seven points is completely irrelevant in this position. Just, oh, fine. Okay. Interesting. You just need to get them into your home board.
Arthur: Fine. It's hard raise now. Yeah. But that, that's a classic. My, my initial logic was to go down having a, a long bridge.
But actually,
Chris: yeah. So now I can safety the block that I have now, it's very important when you're moving the checkers around the board to use what are called crossovers. Crossover. It means moving a checker from one quadrant to the next. So I played the five, I could play the two. Oops. Like that. That's wrong.
What I need to do is get my checkers into my home board as quickly as possible. So that's the two.
Yeah. Okay.
Chris: Hopefully that more. So you have one problem left. You need to clear the midpoint. [00:24:00]Yeah. And look, you've just cleared it. Six five. I hope you would find clearing the midpoint is the right play here.
Arthur: I mean my, my, my logic here would be moving the 13, both five and six. Yeah.
Chris: So now there is no further contact. Yeah. The outcome of the gang will be decided by the dice. But there might be a bit of interesting doubling theory on the way. So by five is clear. I take a checker in. My one is very clear.
I take a crossover. So I do this stuff on automatic, but if you don't know these fundamentals, then you have to work it out from first principles. And that's why beginners play very slowly because they have no model in their brain to refer to. Yeah.
Arthur: Interesting. Okay. So with this one I'd actually move, I'd move both pieces from the eight.
Yeah. And my logic would be Yeah, because yeah you fill the whole
Chris: and you get them in [00:25:00] as quickly as possible. Yeah. So now, yeah, exactly. After all of this, you are now 21 pips ahead. Which is a huge leap. Six four is good for me, so I can do six and four. So now I'm only 11 pips down. Now if you're playing live backgammon, you should keep a running count in your head, but that depends on your level of capability.
As a mathematician. Yeah. Or an arithmetician. Yeah. One of the reasons I play backgammon is I'm very good at mental arithmetic and I make known claim for having developed that I was born with it. Yeah. So now six four,
Arthur: oops, sorry. Come back to you. It's gone back a roll for some reason. Sorry about the software.
Six four.
Six and a four would be, i'd move them both from the eight.
Chris: Yeah. So there's another little adage. You can never have too many checkers on your four point [00:26:00] in a bear off.
Okay.
Chris: And you want the spares on the six five and 4.2. So six three. I'm actually gonna do this because I haven't got a check on my four point, so I can take two crossovers and put a place.
Oh, that's smart. Useful, right? Double two. So firstly, obviously you've gotta move the two checkers in.
Arthur: Yeah. And then I'm getting the hell out of that. On, off the two. Then you two checkers
Chris: off
Arthur: the
Chris: background is a simple game when played well.
Arthur: Ah, double four, right? So now 1,
Chris: 2, 3. And then the question is the fourth one. So I would
Arthur: actually move from the 11.
Chris: Yeah. I'm gonna take the crossover.
Arthur: Oh really? Yeah. Is that always, why is that the right move?
Chris: Because now next time I might be able to checker off, take a checker off, if I roll in five or six or something, if I'd pay 11 [00:27:00] seven, both of my numbers would have to be used to continue to move checkers into my home board.
Oh, okay.
Arthur: Fine. Yeah, that makes sense.
Chris: Four two is easy. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So now how far behind am I? I'm only 10 picks behind and another double four. What a play? 1, 2, 3, 4. Now that demonstrates it. It is really quite nice. So I've now got an empty four point on my side of the board. So every four that I roll, I'll have to move a checker either from my six point to my two point or my five point to my one point, and then later on I might have to roll a six to take that checker off.
That's grossly inefficient use of numbers, so having an empty four point. Is a real no.
Okay.
Chris: When you've still got lots of other checks. Six, five. Yeah. So you take two off three, one from slowing down. Now you're only one pip ahead, but you've got five off and I've got three off. [00:28:00]And the number of checkers off is important.
And now you've rolled a really good number,
Arthur: so I'm gonna take two off from the 6 1 1 off from the three, and then I'm gonna move the final one
Chris: like that.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: Five two. I'm struggling to keep up for three. Okay. Virtually always right to take checkers off.
Five, three. I still have some hope. And in fact, if we look at the, oh, you just rolled double five and it's play when it's four smooth. The computer plays it for you now. Okay. Excuse me. Now, unless I roll a double six pretty quickly on toast. Yeah. So now if you roll a two or a three, the game will have some interest.
There it is. Alright, so now I need to take at least two checkers off to maintain the spectator's interest. Six, four is no [00:29:00] good, right? I now have five checkers left. You have three? So the game is over. I cannot win because I'll need to take four checkers off next time.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So you won. You won that game.
You won two, two points. Yeah. At the end of the game, the computer gives you a performance rating, which is now here we go on the screen. So you've played at world championship level and I've played at world class level. Yeah. So the number is important. So four and below you are a very good player.
2.5 and below, you truly are a world champion, but nobody in the world can play at 2.5 and below. So the best players in the world play around three in terms of performance, and that number is calculated by looking at the moves you made and measuring them against the optimal moves for every position as you play.
Arthur: Okay okay, so my performance rating is 2.45 and then yours [00:30:00] is 4.73.
Chris: But you, when you talk and teach yours blunder Yeah. And you sometimes make a move, is wrong, to, to make a point. Yeah. . This is the fun. This is my teaching tool and what we've just done, I do with students all over the world and yeah, you can look much more deeply into any position as well and do all sorts of statistical analysis, which obviously is beyond the scope of what we're trying to do today.
There you go. So now go into another game, but I'm guessing there's other things you'd like to look at.
Arthur: God, that was seriously fine. It's so cool that you can get a ranking 'cause Yeah. Performance doesn't feel like it's that visible when you are when you are playing.
Do you know what I mean? I don't know. For me that was so insightful, Chris, about all these really niche scenarios and sometimes you go over it quite quickly on why you do things, but there's often, there's a, there was a lot of surprises for me there [00:31:00] on what you did and really niche, useful points.
Yeah. Now. I think it could be fun just to, to play out the time again by having another game. But it, if you see it differently, then if you wanna do that,
Chris: The point about playing games is there's always instruction in virtually every role. Yeah. So when I, with students and we get a really complex position, I'll break out, open a second window with the program running and then we'll do a really deep analysis.
Yeah.
Arthur: Okay.
Chris: So let's see how you play an opening. Six two.
Arthur: Okay. So in opening six two. I mean there's two options here. Either I move the 13, the six, or the 24. Now knowing that you are quite aggressive and that you support aggression, generally what do I want to do? I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna move the 13 six, I'm gonna move the 24 2
Chris: right. Which is a disaster.
Arthur: Ah,
Chris: good to know. Good to know. It's not following the basic concepts [00:32:00] of opening play in this. Yeah.
Arthur: There was, I feeling slightly confident about that.
Chris: So what are you trying to do in the opening three things? You're trying to make new points. You can't do that with a six two. Yeah.
You're trying to unstack the heavy points. IE because you've got five checkers on two of your points, your six point and your 13 point. So that's grossly inefficient. Yeah. And thirdly, the two rear checkers are the furthest from home, so you need to get them going. Yeah. So given that those three basic piece of information now play six kids
Arthur: I'd move the them both from the 24
Chris: again. So that's, so you've advanced the rear checker, but you haven't done stacked either of your heavy points. So that must be wrong.
Arthur: Okay. What about moving the sixth and the 24 and then the two off the 13? Yeah,
Chris: so that is the standard opening move with six two in back network. There's a one way variation, but we're not going into that today. [00:33:00] Three, two is a mess. So I've got the option. I can do this, right? But it's a little bit desperate in the position, which is, it is only the second move again.
So the standard play is to do this. So I've exposed two parts, but I've got the rear checkers going. I've unstacked a heavy point and I've created duplication. You need four to hit on my 11 point and you need four to hit on the four point. Okay. And
Arthur: you're not tempted just to move that five even though it's very passive.
Chris: No, that would be awful. So again 13, eight, somewhere down the bottom of list of possible moods. Yeah. It's just so wrong. You cannot play passively. You can't play passive back gamma. Okay. So my advice to students is I don't care how you treat your friends and your partners at home, but when you play back game, you really need to be aggressive.
Arthur: Okay. It's fantastic. Five. Okay. Fi five in three. What's, what are the options here? [00:34:00]Sorry.
Chris: There are choices, but not many. Yeah.
Arthur: I'm just trying to get out of the sort of psyche of just automatically doing stuff.
Chris: Sometimes the safe move turns out to be the right play. You could do this, but then that leaves the, yeah. The two blocks exposed. If you do this with the five then your choice for the three is this.
The last back checker going or safety that checker and hoping something really useful next time.
Arthur: That, that's what I wanna do. Is there is it is saving, this will be close
Chris: to correct. And it is correct. I dunno whether the advancing the rear checker was any good.
Arthur: Such a useful software there.
Chris: Oh, it's incredible. So advancing that rear checker was six thousandths of a point better, right? So in other words, negligible, right? So we just roll on now three, one, right? So I could make, I can make the anchor right and do this, [00:35:00] but you are, yeah, I would do that. Are gonna have difficulty playing your next role.
And I've been offered the chance to make my five point, which I'm not going to define 'cause I'm not worried about the safety of my blogs in your board. See what and again, that's completely right. Five one's really ugly, right? You've managed a series of really ugly roles this morning, but don't worry,
Arthur: okay?
So I'm looking at my pieces.
Chris: You've got a choice of one move here, by the way.
Arthur: Okay? For me, I'm gonna move the 24 I'm gonna move the 24 to 18.
Chris: Alright? So this is a reasonable attempt, but it now you're gonna get hit with any six, one, or four. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to think about how the numbers play. So the option is this, right? You've got an inferior board and sometimes you
Arthur: 13.
Yeah, 13 to eight have to
Chris: accept the [00:36:00] fact that so if you look at 24 eighteens, it's nearly a blunder, right? Just put another level of, oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Let's just interrupt that.
So if I just put quick, so with the software, you can look different levels ahead. Yeah. 24 18 turns out to be very, just too risky basically. And sometimes you have to accept what the dice give you. Now six one for me is quite awkward,
so I'm not gonna do this because that exposes a blot on the eight point. Yeah. I've got the choice of doing this, which is playing safe, which is ugly. Yeah. I can do this six, which looks better, and then do something with the one. Yeah. So maybe I advance. To that covering the outer boards.
It's thinking too long. So it's gonna tell me it doesn't like that. Let's have a look. See him. [00:37:00] So and another great lesson, if you don't see a move, you can't play it. Yeah. So when you are playing, you should always have the word candidates in your mind. What are the candidate moves? So here this would certainly be a better distribution of the checkers.
My, my play was wrong. But I didn't for whatever reason. Partly 'cause I'm talking, but I didn't see the move. Yeah. You can't play a move you don't see. So now you are on roll. Let's hope for something better. Six
Arthur: four. Not much choice. So I can't do anything with a 23. Yeah. It took me longer to work out than I want to admit. You're gonna make two
Chris: point because there is no plaque. Yeah.
Arthur: Fine fine.
Chris: Yeah. Now I've rolled double two, so this is great. One, two. Then I have to make another decision. Do I make your five point, which is a great point to have.
Yeah. Or do I keep goalkeeper and do this? Oops, sorry. Not that. You
can do that if you want.
Chris: [00:38:00] Yeah. Yeah.
So am I fear. So that's like another great point to have because it will hinder your movement, of your rear checkup. And I look at your side of the board and you've got 10 checkers in the attack zone, so I should certainly be slightly fearful. Yeah. Difficult call, I think probably let's just have a look at the other play again.
So two of them are very clear. So you do that and then you think about the others. This gives me a long-term advantage with very little risk, so I'm going to do that.
Arthur: Yeah. That's the one I was gonna move.
Chris: The computer happens to like that. The other play was okay, but not great. Now, two, one not very good at play. Okay. That's all I would say. Yeah.
Arthur: What am I gonna do here? I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna move the six two and then I'm gonna move the 23 by one.
Chris: So certainly the a advancing the rear tracker is correct because now you've got two numbers that escape rather than one.
There's two. Could be play 8, 6, 6 to four. Six to four is probably okay. [00:39:00] Yeah, it's fine. I should think about doubling, which I haven't done, right? Six two. So how do you think I'm gonna play six two?
Arthur: I think you are going to, you are gonna hit me with a five and then you wanna move in the six to the seven? Yeah.
Chris: So another fundamental theorem background and the last checker has to pay a price to leave the theater of action. So I've just hit you so that if you now to need to roll a three and then another number to escape.
Secondly, if you stay on the bar, let's see what happens. One, four. That's okay, right? One, four. I think you're gonna find very easily. So now I am two pits up. Yeah. I'm threatening to block you in. Yeah. So if I roll a six, you are going to have an uncomfortable position. Yeah. So I think I've got just [00:40:00]enough air to W because firstly I'm threatening to block you in.
Secondly, I've got the security of the anchor on your five point.
Arthur: Yeah. Which is a great place to be. I'm gonna accept that
Chris: you It's a take. Yeah, two, one. So now I'm gonna go.
Yeah. So now I've got, and then hit me. I could hit you, but actually I'm gonna threaten to make the eight point or the three point and put the pressure on you. If I hit you, which obviously I can do, then the problem is one's a good for you, but then twos and threes are good for you as well, because they're a potential tunnel to freedom, right?
So here, now I'm putting the onus on you to roller two. Yeah. Hitting certainly a consideration, right? But it's wrong [00:41:00] in this particular instance. Interesting. Recognizing that it's wrong. Takes expertise and experience. Yeah. '
Arthur: cause that, that does not seem, yeah. Now that you explain it, but it doesn't seem obvious.
Yeah. Initially.
Chris: So now we reach a key moment in the game. If you roll a two, you are well in it. If you don't roll a two, you're gonna be in trouble.
Arthur: Okay.
Chris: Two. There you go.
Arthur: So I hit you. Yeah. And then where do I wanna move the four? I'm gonna move the eight. I don't think there is another option really.
Chris: So that's play a, play B is to develop this stack while your opponent's on the
Arthur: bar. That seems very risky. No,
Chris: Yeah, it is. Alright, so you all you are interested in is getting home for Chris, getting little Jimmy on the far side home for Christmas?
Arthur: Yeah I'm in. I'm not gonna, retreat fully, but I'm in protection mode.
Chris: So three six, [00:42:00] nah, that's a really awkward role for me. I could hide this one. Yeah. Or I can enter the field of battle and come out. So it leaves you fives and falls to hit. Yeah. If you come in and do this, you've got ones, threes and fives to hit the track on the three points. So I'm guessing this is gonna be better, but it could be.
This could be. Alright. So see you again. Oh, and then, sorry. Completely missed a play. Make the right play. So I, safety the checker, bring another attacker. And very importantly. Just duplicated five. You need a five to hit on the eight point, and you need a five to hit on the 22 point duplication is a really big part of back gammer.
Three, two.
Arthur: Could you just explain what duplication is again? Sorry. Duplication
Chris: is [00:43:00] giving your opponent the same number to do two good things. So it then has to make a choice as to which of the two things he does. So diversification is the complimentary part of duplication. Diversification means placing your checkers so that as many possible numbers as many numbers as possible, work effectively on your next term.
Okay. Okay. Get you, I get you. So now, because it's
Chris: now you're faced with a difficult decision.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So you can play passively. This. Yeah. Or you can be aggressive and go for this. The reason for the hit is to protect the blot on the other side of the board.
Arthur: Yeah. I see what you're saying. I'm gonna go aggressive.
Chris: Okay. Aggressive. And this time it's wrong. Yeah. And this time you just play safe.
Yeah. So what the aggressive play exposed another check, and that was why it was wrong. [00:44:00] So I've got 10 tech checkers in the attack zone and you are just gonna have to hope that you survive. So four, two is a great role.
Conversely if you had hit, I'd have stayed on the bar and it would've been, it would've worked brilliantly.
Arthur: But yeah. But did I not say hit?
Chris: You did? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I misplayed it. Oh, yes, you we did hit and it said it was a blunder, so I went back. Yeah, but I still hit, sorry. I should have kept, yeah.
So you made the, no, don't
Arthur: worry.
Chris: You made the wrong move and I corrected it, but now you've come in with a two five, which is brilliant because you've come in and hit.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So that's top number. Now I've stayed on the bar. Whoa. So now we've got interesting times.
Arthur: So every move is a cube decision. Yeah.
So should this,
Chris: should
Arthur: you redouble
Chris: this position,
Arthur: As things lie? So you can't come in now, can you?
Chris: So if you roll any combination of one, three, and five, you'll make the. Hit the block on the 22 [00:45:00] point and you'll, the game will be over effectively.
Arthur: Okay. I'm just looking at where things are now.
I'm doing considerably better.
Chris: So there are three things in any position that you consider when doubling. Okay. And the acronym is called Pratt, which stands? P stands for position. Yeah. Who's got the better static position? I've got a three point home board. You've got a four point. Sorry, I've got a four point home board.
You've got a three point home board. You stand slightly worse. But I've got three checkers back and you've got one checker back, so advantage to you. Second thing is race. And if you look at the PIP camp, you are already 42 pips ahead in race. Yeah. Which is massive.
Yeah.
Chris: And then T stands for threat.
Do you have a threat which if executed will mean that your opponent won't take next time?
So to go back to what I said earlier, if you make your three point or 22 point as it's numbered there, you'll lose your market. I will [00:46:00] certainly drop next time.
Arthur: Yeah. Sorry, what was the A for again?
Chris: A, so it RA is race. So P is for position, RA for race and T for threat. Yeah.
Oh, okay. And
Chris: you've got a big threat here.
It's a redouble. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Got you.
Chris: And it's a take, I've got many ways to win the game. Three, two
Arthur: okay. Three in a two. Do I like it? So I'm just looking at this now,
Chris: So when you get in the race,
Arthur: I know it's boring, but. My, my initial gut is to move on the 18 all the way to the 13, which
Chris: is clearly correct. Yeah,
Arthur: I Is that correct? Yeah. Could there be a no, because it's just so hard for me to come back here.
Chris: No. Hitting is too risky. So now I've got a three five and the game's gonna get complicated, so I'm gonna roll the three. Make your point and then the five, I'm gonna do this right? 'cause the eight point is useful. And I don't mind being hit because I hold two points in your board. That's a back game.
Yeah. Which means [00:47:00] I'm in the game forever. Oh, you just roll double five. Yeah. Speed things up. This is 4, 2, 3, 4. So you cleared the midpoint. That was a sensationally. Good role. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So now I am trying to make. Points in my board. I want to make the two point. I'm not giving up either of my anchors until I have to.
Arthur: Yeah, that makes sense.
Chris: Four one.
Arthur: Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4. So I'd move the four from the eight and then I'd move the one from the two.
Chris: Yeah. No need to expose anything here. I've got six one, so I'm continuing my game plan of trying to make the two points, but very soon I'm gonna have to give up one of the points in your board. Six, two.
Arthur: I'd move the six from the eight.
Six. And I'd also move the two from the eight. Yeah.
Chris: So now you've got an even number of checkers to bear it now. So I'm faced with the decision, do I do this, which is an impurity? Yeah. [00:48:00]
Yeah.
Chris: Or do I do? Do this
race?
Chris: It's not racing, but it's keeping the pure, the purity of my board. So I would
Arthur: actually, I move, I wouldn't, I would, I'd ignore the seven because you'll get a one at some point
Chris: you'd ignore.
It's not so much that it's keeping all the checkers in place. So making the one point here is Okay. Is very close. Yeah, but you've just rolled double one now. That's interesting, isn't it?
Arthur: Okay. And you are gonna ask me what I want to do here. I know I don't want to land on you.
Chris: You can play safe by doing this, right?
Or you can create a five point prime
Arthur: with a bit of risk by doing this.
Oops, sorry. Jumping, do the last one.
Chris: How's that feeling? One, your life is not looking as good. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah. I don't want to do that. I wanna be low risk.
Chris: Okay. So sorry. That's just undo the move. So what we're saying is
yeah, and that's the right move by a long way.
Arthur: And why is it to not? [00:49:00] Is it to not? ' cause if the other option is to move two points from 17 to 19, but then you are quite exposed on the following goes, aren't you? So
Chris: what you need here is spares. You want time to get the outside checkers in with no risk whilst my boar goes south for the winter.
Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah. Okay.
Chris: So now I've got a lovely boar. Yeah.
Arthur: Yeah, you are a threat. Yeah. So I wouldn't be low risk two, one and I've got time.
Chris: Yeah. So again, you could make the five point.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: Or you can make the ace point.
Arthur: I'm gonna make that one.
Chris: Yeah. So again, just giving me a gratuitous, oh, now it's gonna tell me it likes the other one.
Oh, sorry. I could do that. Four to one is perfectly all right. Yeah. The key is not to make the five point and give me a shot. Seven to four was better 'cause it got a checker in now.
Arthur: But then, sorry. Can I just cut you? Cut, you cut in there. Yeah, but if I, surely it's, if I roll a doubles if I roll a six and [00:50:00] a five, for example, surely having three points, three checkers on 0.7.
Is quite a nerve wracking compared to four because just the nature of having to move two.
Chris: But again you've got to get them in so you can't Right. Sit there waiting for a perfect number.
Okay,
Chris: so five two I'm heading, don't forget that in some variations you are going to win a gamut, right? 'cause I've got a lot of rare checkers.
So yeah, that checker now is not doing a lot of good. And I've got a perfect ball.
Six, two the six is forced.
Arthur: And then the two, I'm gonna move, where do I wanna move? So I'm actually gonna move that to the four 'cause you told me how valuable the four is. Yeah.
Chris: And you keep an even number of checkers on your two highest points.
So you've got six checkers on your two highest points, which is correct technique. So I'm just gonna come around here. I'm waiting for you to roll a disaster basically.
Arthur: Okay four to one. One and four. There's not a lot of
Chris: choice, right?
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: So now [00:51:00] we reached the crux of the game. Yeah. So what's bad for you? Double six would've been bad. Double five would've been bad. Six four would've been bad. Five four would've been bad. But luckily you didn't roll any of those.
Arthur: Yeah. So now I'm gonna move, I'm actually gonna move it from the four and just move it to the one,
Chris: keep the spare on the six point, so now I can't keep my perfect board. Yeah. So if I do this six, I have to do this with the three, and my board is gone. So basic, again, basic theory of background. You do not compromise your board when your method of winning is to hit a shot.
So this will be the right play.
Arthur: Okay?
Chris: Double two.
Arthur: I will be hitting you.
Chris: Yeah. One, two. And then by doing this, you get me out of your hair.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: Staying out.
Arthur: That's not a fun place for you. Five seven
Chris: is forced. That's the only move that doesn't leave your shot staying out. Six, two. Nice and easy.
Arthur: Yeah.
Chris: Now you want me to come in because you've [00:52:00] got some horror numbers next time, right? Oh six one is, so if I'd rolled any combination of 3, 4, 5, or you had rolled any combination of 3, 4, 5, and six, you would've exposed the checker. Six one is absolutely perfect. Yeah.
Yeah. So
Chris: now you're safe for months five, two.
So I come in and take a crossover. I should save the gamon, but were you to roll a double? I would be quaking. And three, one really doesn't help. Two crossovers.
Arthur: Five And one.
Four. Again, bearing in with perfect deficiency.
Chris: Two and one. Now, things would have to go very badly wrong for me to lose a gamon,
Arthur: but they can still go wrong. Four three.
Now if you, if I roll two one, you can still win a
Chris: Gamon six two, all excitement is gone. Okay. You just take them off. Normally I would resign, but
Arthur: the game for the hell of it.
Interesting.
Chris: And again, there you go. Look, two world championship performances, which you can do with the help of the software. That's, so there'd been half a dozen decisions [00:53:00] in that game where either player would actually have made a mistake and then the performance rating would not be what on the screen.
But you can occasionally. Do this. Yeah.
Arthur: So got I think, I don't know if looking at what's happened in the last two games, what you've illustrated is just how how, actually there's always options that aren't immediately obvious. Yeah. And a few general principles that are quite useful as well.
Chris: Yeah. Backgammon can be played at many different levels, which is why it's survived for 5,000 years. So you can play, and lots of people play and they play on the beach and they only play on holiday and they have a good time, but they're probably playing quite dreadful. But you enjoy it. And then the whole purpose of thing is to enjoy it.
And then you can. Learn all the stuff that I've learned over my lifetime and apply that. And I'm still improving because I'm still learning, because I'm analyzing. But at its highest levels, it's a deeply complex game, and the [00:54:00] doubling cube makes it incredibly difficult. So without doubling Cube, the game would've died at the start of the last century, but luckily it was invented.
And the game will continue for many more years.
Arthur: Chris it's been such a privilege to, to, for you to teach us and I know your lessons are available at the collective dog community. And for me what was quite insightful was just how important aggression is as well in general.
Chris: It, so I I've had a couple of students who in their daily life are very passive. They've read a lot of books, they've had a lot of lessons. They understand that you need to be aggressive, but they can't bring themselves to do it because it's not in their nature. And slowly but surely, I'm eradicating that, but that takes time.
Yeah. Some people are very naturally risk. Takers and aggressive, and they will learn more quickly. So your capability of playing good backgammon is partly driven by your nature.
Arthur: Yeah. I'm gonna be downloading this. I know that there's a way to [00:55:00] get on a Mac, isn't it Ed through
Chris: Yes. So if you want Extreme Gamma as a PC based software system, there will be a Mac version in somewhere between 12 and 18 months.
But anybody can run Windows Program on a Mac using a virtual machine. So I use Parallels, but there's bootcamp, there's a couple of others. So it's not completely straightforward, but if you need a bit of help get it because it's worth it.
Arthur: Yeah. And so easy for us to go through. Yeah. What
Chris: you are, look the actual program doesn't come with this nice color scheme because the user interface is 15 years old.
So the, that part of it is about to be redeveloped as well. The colors that we're using in this board today a guy called Rain has provided a series of skins that you can place over the basic computer to get much nicer color schemes. And the colors you are seeing here are the colors on the front cover of Paul McGill's book Back Gamut, which is still [00:56:00] the Bible of the game.
He, he was the first person to espouse basic principles. And that book has stood the test of time, despite the fact it'll be 50 years old next year.
Arthur: Yeah. And and were you, where was I in terms of expectations on. On on level today. That early blunder, I made two, two blunders.
Both early in the games, but Right. But generally,
Chris: so there are only 15 possible opening roles. So obviously it's very easy to learn the 15 right. Possible opening roles but people still get those wrong. The opening role and response, you are up around 600 possible positions after each player has made one move and after the first player is rolled again, you are into the sort of 30,000 possible things.
So you can't learn backgammon by doing what you do in chess and learning the openings. You have to be able to apply fundamental principles from the start, so the way you learn and develop, [00:57:00]again, is very different from the way you learn and develop chess.
So
Arthur: yeah, learning those opening roles even the response
Chris: to the opening roles, let me, if you've got time, I'll put one position up, right?
Yeah.
Arthur: Send you.
Chris: We've got two dos in that.
I'll set up the position, sorry. Formal new set up position. Go. So I have, I've opened with a three
Arthur: and a two, which I play like this.
How would you play?
Come on. So you are white. How do you play two one here?
I,
There's two, two areas of auctions. Either Im go hard on the. I could split the risk. I, because you've already opened out on and moved the piece from the one to the four. I'm not inclined to move the 13 two. I'm actually thinking of moving the 24, both the 22 and 23,
which you are you could be telling me that is Yeah. Absolutely sinful.
Chris: And this is a [00:58:00] massive blunder. Okay. So we're going back to the violence bit. If you don't hit right, okay. If you don't hit with the two, then you, whatever move you made is horrendous. Yeah. So we do that. Come on. Why is it,
Arthur: But then I have to go all the way back on the forward.
It
Chris: doesn't matter. What you're do really, again, think of it as a war game. You're trying to get soldiers on the field of battling effecti positions. Being hit in the opening is completely irrelevant at the end of the game, when everyone's got strong home boards, it's massively relevant, but this is just not relevant.
Yeah. So if I took the checkers back there so this was a position that I set up, take the checker off the bar and put it here, and then I then asked the computer, what is the right move of two, one, [00:59:00] it'll have a little think. And then you can see that anything other than the move that I just showed you is some of them are disasters.
Your move is a blunder. Yeah. So you apply the aggression theory, but again, every top player in the world will know the correct response to every opening role with every possible dice role. You over time you acquire that knowledge. But it's 600 positions, so that's quite a bit of work. And again, you get to be as good as you the effort you put in backgammon to learn backgammon.
To a good level. You have to put in a lot of work in terms of reading, studying lessons, particularly watching videos about government. Good back government. Online is a brilliant way to learn. So my best student is an American student in LA and when we started two years ago, he had a [01:00:00]performance rating of 12.
Now he has done everything I have told him in terms of how to learn, how to practice and who to play with. So he's now on a PR of six, which is very good for someone who started two years ago on 12. Yeah. And I can improve anybody's performance. But it's down to the student how much work they put in to achieve that development.
Arthur: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So everything in
Chris: life you don't get anything for nothing.
