Backgammon For Dummies (For Dummies Series) - Softcover

Bray, Chris

 
9780470770856: Backgammon For Dummies (For Dummies Series)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0470770856 ISBN 13: 9780470770856
Verlag: For Dummies, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

A comprehensive and fun guide to Backgammon!

Backgammon is one of the oldest games in the world, the origins of which date back some 5000 years – and it's still going strong. It enjoyed a huge resurgence in the 1970s, and then again in the 1990s with the popularity of the Internet, where millions of people play tournaments online every day.

Today, backgammon's following in the UK is huge, with a dedicated British Isles Backgammon Association, and hundreds of face-to-face tournaments taking place across the UK every year.

In this book, backgammon expert Chris Bray walks you through the basics of setting up a board, opening strategies, middle and end-game tactics, and tips on when to make key moves. You'll also get to grips with basic probabilities, the doubling cube and the 25% rule. And if you want to take your gaming further, there's plenty of advice to get you started in tournament backgammon, as well as playing online.

Suitable for both beginners and experienced player looking for more tips and techniques, Backgammon For Dummies includes coverage on:

  • Starting and Playing the Game
  • Handling the Middle Game
  • Bearing Off (The Last Lap)
  • Varying the Play
  • About the author

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Chris Bray has been playing backgammon for over 30 years, and started writing a weekly backgammon column for The Independent newspaper in 1994. A regular fixture on the London backgammon scene, he also takes part in tournaments around the world, and regularly gives seminars on backgammon and sports psychology.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Your step-by-step guide to becoming a masterful backgammon player

Backgammon is an exciting, tactical game, and this straightforward book enables newcomers to get in on the fun, as well as providing expert advice for the more experienced player. Fully illustrated, it's packed with opening strategies, middle- and end-game tactics, tips on how to make key moves, and advice to get you up to speed on dice probabilities. You'll be hooked in no time!

  • The basics of starting play ― Set up your board, get to grips with the rules and tactics of the game, and make the opening move
  • Move smoothly into the middle game ― Work out basic probabilities, apply the 25 per cent rule, and raise the stakes with the doubling cube
  • Bearing off into the last lap ― Discover key 'no-miss' positions and master complex endings
  • Cast your gaming further afield ― Compete in tournaments, pit your skills against a computer, and play live games online

Open the book and find:

  • The 36 possible outcomes that rolling two dice produces
  • Over 50 illustrations of a backgammon board highlighting key tactics and rolls of the dice
  • Definitions of backgammon-speak, from anchors and builders to a lover's leap
  • Strategies to apply to each type of middle game
  • Advice on playing against computers and online opponents
  • Useful backgammon resources to help refine your game further

Aus dem Klappentext

Backgammon is an exciting, tactical game, and this

straightforward book enables newcomers to get in on

the fun, as well as providing expert advice for the more

experienced player. Fully illustrated, its packed with

opening strategies, middle- and end-game tactics, tips

on how to make key moves, and advice to get you up to

speed on dice probabilities. Youll be hooked in no time!

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Backgammon For Dummies

By Chris Bray

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2008 Chris Bray
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-77085-6

Chapter One

Tackling the Basics of Backgammon

In This Chapter

* Finding out what backgammon is all about

* Familiarising yourself with the backgammon board

* Understanding the basic ideas

Are you one of the thousands of people who have a backgammon board kicking around at home but have never actually played the game? Or perhaps you've played a couple of games with a friend or relative and had your interest whetted? Maybe you've played the game quite a bit and feel yourself to be invincible? Let me assure you that absolutely anybody can play backgammon and get many hours of enjoyment and mental stimulation from the game.

In this chapter, I define the game of backgammon and discuss the basics of how you play and the equipment you need.

Looking at the Basics of the Game

Backgammon is a board game in which players on two opposing sides use the roll of two dice each in a race to get 15 playing pieces around a board with 24 points, bear them off, and thus win the game.

The game requires at least two players, although variations, which I explain in Chapter 12, allow more than two players to take part.

At its simplest, backgammon is a racing game, but because the pieces of the two opposing sides come into conflict while racing, the strategy and tactics can become very subtle. So, although the objective of the game is very straightforward and can appear deceptively easy, the many dangers and obstacles the pieces encounter as they make their journey around the board provide the game with infinite variety and challenges.

You're awarded a different number of points for different ways of winning. I explain the types of wins in Chapter 2.

Setting Up the Board and Arranging the Pieces

BACKGAMMON SPEAK

Backgammon is played on a board consisting of 24 narrow triangles called points. The triangles alternate in colour and are grouped into four quadrants of six points each. The quadrants are referred to as the player's home board and outer board and the opponent's home board and outer board. Your home and outer boards are the quadrants nearest to you. A ridge down the centre of the board called the bar separates the home and outer boards from each other. Figure 1-1 shows a backgammon board with the four boards and the bar identified.

Backgammon boards typically come as little briefcases that fold out flat to create the board. This space-saving feature makes them easy to carry.

Each player has 15 pieces. Unlike chess, where the two players most commonly have white or black pieces, in backgammon the pieces - or stones or men or checkers, which is the term I prefer and use throughout the book - can be any two colours.

Figure 1-2 shows the starting position for both the player's and opponent's 15 checkers.

On a real board the points aren't numbered, but I did it here so that I can refer to the points by number in the text.

Before starting the game, you place your checkers in their starting positions:

  •   Five checkers on your 6-point in your home board

  •   Three checkers on your 8-point in your outer board

  •   Five checkers on your 13-point in your opponent's outer board

  •   Two checkers on your 24-point in your opponent's home board.

    Your opponent sets her checkers opposite to yours in a mirror image.

    From your opponent's point of view, the point numbers are reversed. Your 13-point is your opponent's 12-point, your 3-point his 22-point, and so on.

    REMEMBER

    You can set up the board with your home board on your right or left. If your home board is on your right-hand side, you move your checkers anticlockwise, as Black does in Figure 1-2. If your home board is to your left, you move in a clockwise direction, as White does in the illustration.

    You may be more comfortable with one set-up or the other when you first start to play, but you soon get used to playing either way round. In the days before electricity, the board was always set up with the home boards nearest to the strongest source of light. In the twenty-first century, we no longer have that particular problem!

    Examining the Rest of the Equipment

    What else do you need other than the board and the checkers before you start to play? The following sections tell you.

    Dice

    In backgammon, the moves are determined by the roll of dice. Each player has two standard dice with six faces each bearing a number from 1 to 6. The dice are normally, but not always, the same colour as the checkers.

    REMEMBER

    Opposite sides of a die always add up to seven, so the 6 faces the 1, the 4 faces the 3, and the 5 faces the 2.

    In good quality backgammon boards, you find what are known as precision dice, the same as used in casinos. They're called precision dice because they're machined in such a way that each face of the die has an identical weight and so the die gives what is known as true rolls, which means that if you roll the die thousands of times, each of the six numbers land face up approximately the same number of times.

    Dice shakers or dice cups

    WARNING!

    In backgammon, you're not allowed to throw the dice from your hand onto the board. Like the majority of games (other than craps) that involve dice, you must use a dice shaker to eliminate cheating. Amazingly, a good dice mechanic can cheat and roll a specific number if he's allowed to roll from his hand. Shakers eliminate this possibility.

    A dice shaker is a cup (like a drink holder) normally made of leather or plastic. The best dice shakers have a slight ridge just below the lip on the inside so that the dice catch the ridge as they're projected onto the board and then they roll rather than slide. The shakers aren't always perfectly round because they need to fit into the board when the board is folded up.

    Doubling cube

    Finally, but most importantly, when you buy a backgammon board you find the doubling cube inside. This six-sided die is marked with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64, although you occasionally find a doubling cube marked with a 1 instead of a 64.

    The doubling cube keeps track of the number of points at stake in each game as well as indicating which player last doubled. At the start of the game the doubling cube is set with the 64 face uppermost and is placed in the centre of the board and to one side.

    REMEMBER

    I explain all about the doubling cube and how this cube is used in Chapter 6 but for now just remember this - of all the pieces of equipment, the doubling cube is by far the most difficult to master.

    Digging into the Underlying Concepts

    I'm often asked, 'What skills do I need to be good at backgammon?' The answer to that question gives you an idea of what lies ahead in this book.

    Backgammon is known as a game of total information, meaning that you can see everything on the board in front of you, as you do when you play chess. Having total information is very different to partial information card games such as poker and bridge, in which you have to spend considerable time and mental energy trying to work out what cards your opponents hold. Some games players excel at one type of game or the other. A few very good players excel at both game...

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    Verlag
    For Dummies
    Erscheinungsdatum
    2008
    Sprache
    Englisch
    ISBN 10 
    0470770856
    ISBN 13 
    9780470770856
    Einband
    Taschenbuch
    Auflage
    1
    Anzahl der Seiten
    282
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