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BGonline.org Forums
A question to strong players are you an adjuster or a purist?
Posted By: DaveT
Date: Friday, 1 June 2012, at 12:20 p.m.
A question to strong players are you an adjuster or a purist?
I would be interested in ideas as to how important strong players consider it to be to adjust their play depending on the strength of their opponent and if they do adjust to what extent.
Is this a skill that can generate significant advantage or is it a dangerous thing to do that can easily backfire and end up costing you equity. Clearly it can be the latter but is it a skill that is worth developing is this something you actually do?
Do strong players adjust their play all the time or do they only make adjustments when the skill differential is very significant. If the latter what do we mean by very significant. If adjustments are made do they tend to be how opening moves are played, how contact positions are played or how doubles are given and taken and if so what are the key considerations that shape the way in which adjustments are made in practice. Would you be able to post some examples?
Is there a difference in approach depending on whether the game is online or face to face or whether it is match or money play? If so why are the differences here what shapes your thinking.
It seems to me that you rarely see a position in a backgammon book or article where the writer says technically the correct move against a player of equal ability to you is x but against a weaker player the best move is y. Or that while this would normally be a take - against a much weaker player you should drop because... This might be because annotated games always seem to be between two very strong players or two players of not dissimilar ability. Clearly one of the issues that you face is knowing just how much weaker or stronger your opponent actually is. If strong players do not have reliable information to hand will they actually test the opponent or assess their play in order to adjust the way they play against them is this easy to do and is it reliable.
What I wondering too is whether some World Class players play like the bots and treat everyone the same (equal respect or equal disdain) and whether some World Class players actively make adjustments all the time. Suppose Neil Kazaross is sitting down at a tournament and he is facing a new player who is playing at an intermediate level just how different is he going to play backgammon compared to him sitting down at the same round in the same tournament and facing Stick? What percentage of his moves are going to be any different. Are there no differences, slight nuances or does it change the whole game plan?
What I would be really interested in seeing and what I have never found in the backgammon literature is a annotated match where a World Class player was playing an intermediate level player with explanations as to why the World Class player made particular (adjusted) plays that were different from what he or she would have played had they been facing a player or similar ability. Does any such annotated game exist?
My overall question to the strong players of this forum is are you an adjuster or a purist. If you are an adjuster how do you adjust and are you sure that you are gaining overall from doing so. Is this a skill that all strong players would benefit from acquiring?
Sorry for such a barrage of questions !
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