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BGonline.org Forums
Backgammon Literature on Doubling
Posted By: Chris Bray
Date: Saturday, 3 December 2011, at 7:22 a.m.
Picking up on some earlier threads a few comments and questions to add to the discussion:
1) Doubling came into existence in the mid 1920's. It took until 1970 for the basic 25% take-point to be documented in a backgammon book. Why did it take so long and I wonder who first worked out the theory? Incidenatlly the term beaver didn't appear in print until that same year.
2) Most early backgammon books shy away from doubling - it's just too difficult! - and offer erroneous advice. Honourable exceptions go to Danny Kleinman and Jeff Ward and latterly to Kit Woolsey and also the useful endgame doubling theory from Walter Trice.
3) While it would be nice to see Backgammon Encyclopaedia Volume 2 it would take a very large number of volumes to cover all aspects of the game. I would welcome additional volumes in the same way that all chess players need to study 'Modern Chess Openings' but what is really needed is the definitive book on doubling and that may come into the 'Holy Grail' category.
4) Most people use a mixture of reference positions plus some sort of PRaT (Position, Race Threat) technique to evaluate doubling decisions but it is time that latter technique became more sophisticated by adding weightings to various elements of the analysis.
5) Note that any such techniques need to be able to be applied under the time constraints of modern tournaments - quite a tall ask. Analysing with XG in the calm of one's study is one thing - playing tournament backgammon quite another.
6) The reason that 'Volume 2' of any book often fails to appear is that you don't get rich from writing backgammon books and I speak from personal experience. You have to love the game and want to write but don't give up your day job to become a backgammon author. If you sell 1000 copies of a backgammon book you are doing well. The addressable market is just too small as evidenced by the subscription figures to Inside Backgammon, Chicago Point etc. A lot of the world's best players contribute to this site but I'm guessing the number of regular readers is only in the hundreds not the thousands.
7) My one exception is 'Backgammon for Dummies' which is just approaching a third reprint and sales reaching 10,000 but that is largely due to: 1) The power of the brand and the distribution techniques used by the publishers, Wileys 2) There is a much bigger market for introductory/intermediate material.
8) I reiterate some of these points in a short article in next month's Chicago Point.
9) So any volunteers to write "Doubling in Backgammon - The Definitive Guide"?
Chris
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