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Nactation: match annotation study
Posted By: Daniel Murphy In Response To: Nactation: match annotation study (Nack Ballard)
Date: Thursday, 20 January 2011, at 2:14 a.m.
Ok, I will go through the match, but first a comment.
I appreciate Nactation for its first and primary use for early game sequences, although it's been fascinating to watch the system grow. I think there was some merit in the "ad hoc" comment made earlier, no matter how carefully the system has been worked out before the answers have appeared to the many "how would you Nactate this" questions. I find some of the one-letter abbreviations unintuitive. For example, that "W" (Wild) means "split with the large number and slot the 5 or 4 point with the small number" -- maybe it has other meanings as well? -- or that "X" means "hit and split." [Edit: I haven't reviewed BEACON in months, would need to do that again, and I'd also forgotten the "M"ayfair Split and s"Tack" or "Tower".] BEACON is sensible and well-explained, but already a bit complicated in exactly what is meant by "near", "outer", and "both" -- both what? "Both up and down." There's a small "e" as well as a capital "E." And post-BEACON, when I see (or, how it has seemed to me casually reading some of the "how would you" discussions) a proliferation of small and capital letters and special symbols in order to handle all possible positions and plays, I lose interest. If someone enjoys becoming able to annotate any entire match with Nactation, go for it, but I don't need that.
For my purposes, Nactation is most useful for describing opening sequences precisely; secondly, for file names, and thirdly (perhaps), for categorical study. I don't want to have to learn (and remember) any but the most basic and secondary (BEACON) abbreviations.
As a sidenote, a minor point, given the common language in this forum, in most backgammon books, and the widespread use of English terms in, for example, Danish language forums, is that one thing I like about numeric notation is that it is not language specific. In this respect, it's even better than algebraic notation in chess, where the squares always have the same designations but the one-letter designations of the pieces are language specific (a minor problem for serious students, and totally solved by figurine notation).
For recording matches, I'm perfectly satisfied with my own system. I've recorded many matches, do them well, and no one plays more rapidly than I can record them. Stick's example:
61P-54S-51H-53H-44?
Manually recording, I'd write
61 7 54 20 9 51 8 5* 53 ✓ 10 44? which uses few more strokes, is clear (to me or to someone else, if I don't do the final input), and doesn't require learning any more symbols. In this sequence, of course, the moves are basic, the choices are clear, and the symbols are simple -- Stick's comment that "If I was playing Neil there would be maybe 20% of the plays tops that would actually need a symbol" is on point here -- but suppose, for example, that the 53 had been played bar/20* 24/21 or, blundering, bar/22 13/8. No doubt these alternates are easily handled by Nactation, but I can also simply write 20 21 or 22 8, whatever.
I'm wary of overstated arguments for simplicity, and concerned about discouraging new, beginning, and even experienced players with an overabundance of alphanumeric shorthand. I suppose one could say the same about writing 24/18 or saying "twenty-four eighteen" instead of "play the six from your opponent's ace point to his bar point," but traditional numeric notation is still, I think, essential for discussing plays and strategy, and using it reinforces ease of discussion. For example (I guess this is "Nacbrac" not "Nactation"), to present a concise summary of the top three plays for "54S-63?" I would not type "13/7 8/5* is better than 24/18 8/5* by .014 and better than 24/15 by .021."
54S-63 [H X14 R21] /15
That's not hard to understand, but I do have to know why 24/18 8/5* is "X", not "H", although it also "hits." I also have to remember that "21" is actually "0.021", and I think that what "21" gains in concision it loses in clarity, since I have to read "21" but still must think "0.021". And finally I have to know that "/15" means 15,000 trials, or perhaps 15,552, but that's no big deal.
Old-fashioned but certainly no less clear:
Admittedly, with 40 characters instead of 15, not counting the "/15".
1 13/7 8/5* 2 24/18 8/5* (-0.014) 3 24/15 (-0.021) I hope I've not been too negative. Best Nacwishes! And now on to the test match.
Oh wait, it occurs to me that it's been years since I've manually played out a match transcript on a real board. So until computer programs can decipher Nactation, that's a reason to use standard "JellyFish" notation for online match transcription files.
Ok, the match. I made a second column for Traditional notation and third for how I would manually record the game and comments:
Nactation Trad Me 21S 21 13/11 24/23 21 11 23 41S 41 13/9 24/23 41 9 23 22m 22 6/4(2) 13/11 23/21 22 4 11 21. No idea what "m" means. Is it different from "M"? It's not "h" so obviously he didn't play 24/16*. So he must have played 4, 11 and either 24/22 or 23/21. 41P 41 9/5 65/5 Ok, the previous play was not 4 11 21 but 4 11 22. And "M" is the do-everything "Mayfair Split," but what's "m"? Anyway, 41P is 41 5. 33P 33 11/5(2) 5 must be the play, since "P" is (make the strongest) point, and I imagine some other Nactation would mean 11/5 8/5 13/10. 43H 43 13/9 6/3* 43 3* 9. I know that the alternative 6/3* 6/2* would have been 43K ("kill" meaning attack two blots). 31@ 31 bar 22/ 23/22 22. I'd enter (hitting) and anchor up, and guess the "at sign" (or "apenstaartje" or "sobachka" or "miukumauku" or "snabel a" or "krĝllalfa" or "afna" must in English Nactation mean "anchor." 21L 21 bar/23 9/8 21 23 8 seems clear, but I almost got thrown off wondering if "L" stood for "Loose" (bar/22?), but realized it must mean "Lift." 52T 52 13/6 52 6 is clear, but I've no idea what "T" means. [Edit: sTack or Tower. I'd read this before but didn't remember.] 21@ 21 24/22 23/22 21 22. Yup, "@" is "anchor." 53A 53 8/5 6/1 53 5 1. There seem to be two reasonable plays, 13/10 13/8 and 8/5 6/1. I thought "A" meant "Attack" but what's being attacked? [Edit: I recalled that "A" stands for "Attack" but did not remember that it actually means "play both checkers in or to the home board"] 53R 53 23/15 53 15. Clear. 63R 63 22/13 63 13. Clear. 42P 42 8/4 6/4 42 4. Clear. 53N 53 13/10* 6/1 53 10* 1. The play is clear, although I don't recall exactly what a "Near" play entails. 31$ 31 bar/22 8/7 31 22 7. Clear play, and "$" is slot. 52D 52 13/8 13/11 52 8 11. Does "D" for "Down" always mean two down? 11N 11 4/3*(2) 8/7 13/12 11 3 12. And that's what Kit played. The "N" for "Near" isn't helping me here, neither before nor after seeing the play and TD-Gammon's preferred 4/3*(2) 13/12 7/6. 11P 11 bar/24 11/9 10/9 11 24 9. Which turns out to be Jeremy's play. But how would you Nactate bar/23 11/10 ("P'ing") 5/4 or bar/24 11/10 8/6? 54D 54 13/8 13/9 54 8 9 32C 32 24/21 8/6 32 21 6. Up and in is clear, although I don't remember exactly what "C" for "Cross" means. 55I 55 9/4* 7/(2) 12/7 55 4* 2 7. The number plays itself, but what's "I"? Cub Double D->2 Tak Take T 11F 11 bar/24 8/7(2) 5/4 11 24 7 4. That's how I'd play it, but what's "F" -- "finesse"? 64H 64 7/1* 8/4 64 1*4. Clear. Fan 64 can't move 64 ✓, by habit I'd probably write the roll down. 422 42 8/2 42 2. Up above, 616 instead of 61T would still have been Nactaperfect, no? 41C 41 bar/24* 9/5 41 ✓ 5. "C"rossing the bar. 63H 63 bar/16* 63 16*. Clear Fan Can't move 43 ✓ Rcb Redouble to 4 D->4 Pas Pass P 4-4/9 In short, the Nactation was fairly clear with badly remembered Nactation symbols, but a few notations were troublesome or less than helpful to me, namely:
- 22m (is "m" different from "M"? And I wonder, is it is ever but rarely used except with 2-2 or 3-3?
- 33P (I probably would have written 11/5(2), actually, just to be clear and to save time entering the match later)
- 31@ (that "At" means "Anchor" was an easy enough guess for an English speaker)
- 21L (I'd forgotten "Lift")
- 52T (and "Tower")
- 53A (and what exactly "Attack" meant)
- 11N (aren't there several "Near" plays?)
- 55I (what's "I"?)
- 11F (what's "F"?)
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