501 Essential Backgammon Problems

*the* book for beginner / intermediate players who want to improve their game. Covers all aspects of the game. Clear, logical explanations. Even if you fancy yourself a decent player and you haven't read this book, give it a try. Five stars.

Good for progressing from intermediate pro player to playing safe and when to risk it for a biscuit!!!

Good book with interesting examples and explanations.

I really enjoyed this book. It does what it should. It really makes you think. Like a lot of well written practical books, you get out of it what you put in to it. If you want to put the time into trying the problems, your backgammon will improve .

With an -although somewhat brief - introductory section and perhaps a bit less than thorough section on cube handling, this books covers most situations you will be confronted with playing the game seriously - it is also a great source of knowledge for beginners and intermediate players, who can learn how to avoid some common mistakes using Robertie's general principles...and to be able to single out the best play in a given situation. One word of warning though - the book is concentrated on money play and not match play!

As I start to read Bill Robertie's latest book, 501 Essential Backgammon Problems, I am informed in the preface that he is the world's best backgammon player. So far so good. For those of you unaware, Robertie, former two time world champion, has already written many books on backgammon and together with Kent Goulding co-published the sadly now defunct, but at the time premier magazine "Inside Backgammon". As the title suggests, it is a compilation of 501 problems, split 360 checker plays v 141 cube actions. (67 doubles 74 redoubles). After the introductory chapters covering notation/probability/basic doubling strategy etc, there are 26 chapters covering many of the important concepts in backgammon from the opening to the bearoff. These are: The Opening, Flexibility, The Middle Game, The 5-point, One Man Back, Priming Games, Connectivity, Hit Or Not?, Crunch Positions, Action Doubles, Late Game Blitz, Post-Blitz Turnaround Games, Ace-Point Games Back Games, The Containment, Game Post-Ace-Point Games, Saving The Gammon, The Race, Various Endgames, Bearing Off Against Contact, The Blitz, Breaking Anchor, Too Good To Double?, Playing For A Gammon, The Bearoff, Holding Games, The book manages to cram the 501 positions and analyses into 384 pages of a book measuring just 23x15cms. This is achieved by squashing the diagrams with the effect of making the checkers oval. The problems in each chapter are all bunched together first and the solutions at the end of the chapter hence cutting down on the need to avoid looking at the analysis. It's target audience is everybody from beginner to expert level. The only group that maybe wouldn't find many parts of this book valuable would be world class players. The problems are typical of positions that appear in everyday backgammon and not unusual or tricky positions that an expert may get wrong. The difficulty of the problems range from very easy to hard with the majority in the intermediate/advanced level. My guess is that the book would be suitable to players ranked up to elo 1900 on F.I.B.S. or Gamesgrid. Robertie has attempted to create a book of reference positions whose characteristics the reader can hopefully remember and apply and adapt over the board and for each problem, he typically gives a succinct 8-10 line analysis. There are no references to any of the neural net backgammon programs in the book. I checked all the positions by rollout and did discover some disagreements between the bots' conclusions and Robertie's analysis. There were around 12 cube problems whose equity differed by more than 0.04 and also some checker play differences. Some of those positions would make good reading for the more expert players. My only major criticism on the book is that in some of the checker play problems Robertie doesn't analyse all the potential choices or rejects one when in fact the equities are quite close. The reasoning behind this maybe that that the merits of that checker play do not fit in with the theme of the chapter or are too complex. And on a personal note I prefer to see the pip count in diagrams. Overall an excellent book suitable for either beginners who have learned the very basics or a good refresher book for more advanced players. Marks out of ten 8.5.

A fantastic backgammon book full of very very useful information. It has inproved my game!! Very good to use "as training" without a board. Haven`t read a more useful book on bg.

Excelente libro, el multicampeón Robertie dando clases . . . .

Excelente para quem tem nível intermediário e quer evoluir. É um livro de problemas, com respostas e explicações diretas, que aborda essencialmente todas as fases da partida.

Se vuoi fare un bel salto di qualità, e non essere unicamente un giocatore che lancia i dadi a caso... allora DEVI ( ! ) studiare questo libro ! Altrimenti sedersi davanti ad una tavola di backgammon è solo tempo perso, ipotizzando di saper giocare. OSVYX - [...]

ポイントが的確でわかりやすい内容です。マニュアルとして最適です。

The reviews for this book are good, so I don't want to repeat their analysis. What I will add is why I have given/sold/recommended this book to dozens of struggling backgammon players. There are only a couple paragraphs before each chapter. You "read" it like you "read" the chess puzzle in a newspaper. Backgammon is primarily a money game, although tournament play is very popular with strong players. This book is for money play. This book will save you a *lot* of money as you learn. For beginners, the first time through, many of the positions will seem impossibly difficult to understand. The cube decisions may be mystifying. But go through it twice before you judge it. You will see results in your play. Magriel's book, Backgammon, is still the best starter book for basic strategy and understanding themes in backgammon. There are better (specialized) advanced backgammon books. I have seen no backgammon book, however, which can more quickly get a players' game to improve dramatically. Its fun, and its easy to go through. For intermediate/advanced players, many of the positions are easy, but also great reminders of the need for understanding transitional positions, especially backgames where you hit a loose checker. Critiques: there are not enough end game positions, yes, there are many positions where more alternatives should be given, but this is a "bathroom" book, it is not intended to be a critical analysis of every situation. What 501 does is present the game's complexities in a broad range of positional types, and let you solve a maze of problems, leading to a much better understanding of the game. If you play, or are learning backgammon, get this book and put it in the bathroom. Read it for 5 minutes a day. (12-18 problems is a good average). Supplement this with a good backgammon program, whether the free gnu backgammon, or one of the commercial apps. Within a few months, your game will be dramatically better.