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Backgammon psychology

Posted By: Nir Grinberg
Date: Saturday, 15 October 2011, at 7:32 p.m.

My background is from chess and bridge. In chess there were some world champions who excelled in psychology. the 1st to deal with it was the 2nd world champion Emanual Lasker. He was good at all styles and he deliberately chose the style most uncomfortable for his opponents.

It always strike me as odd that in backgammon ( especially in the computer era ) everybody is occupied with what is the right move, double or take and almost nothing is written on backgammon psychology. Matters of psychology will improve a player results against weaker opponents much more than a fraction of better technique. Here are some interesting questions for the forum ( all in quite a long match against a weaker player ):

1. What is the right style to play ? More difficult games that will probably

lead to more gammons or playing solid initial games that will lead to less

gammons but will also be quite easy for weaker opponent to play at expert

level. ( considering difficult level of games I think it is clear that

world class play against expert play will win less than an expert play

against advanced play ).

2. Taking a double with, say, 27% chances ( no gammons ) but very easy to

play for weaker opponents. ? ( Like in certain holding games ).

The computer will give you a big blunder but I doubt if it is a mistake

against a weaker player.

3. Not doubling and taking losing market risks against opponents who take too

much.

4. Analyzing good and regular opponents games and finding their weak spots.

5. Playing weaker moves on the opening or even later in order to play a

difficult game. e.g play [ 52 ] 13/8 6/4. It must be good keeping a

catalog of different initial moves that lead to different level of

difficulty.

For all these questions and much more there is no established answers either by computers or by the literature. I believe that dealing with these questions makes the game much more interesting. I hope psychology subjects will get much attention as they deserve.

Nir Grinberg

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