[ View Thread ] [ Post Response ] [ Return to Index ] [ Read Prev Msg ] [ Read Next Msg ]

BGonline.org Forums

Memorizing backgammon positions

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Thursday, 16 June 2016, at 12:14 a.m.

This is basically a followup to this post but I think it's interesting enough to warrant a new thread. I started by saying:

If there were a competition with significant money for memorizing 3rd-roll positions or even 4th-roll positions, I would expect memory experts to clean the clock of any backgammon player.

After a rebuttal by Stick, I saw that it would matter a lot exactly what the rules of the memory contest would be. Here's one version where it seems clear to me that memory experts would do better:

The director prepares a printed list of all third-roll positions, recorded using nactation, and makes it public. A few months later, contestants return and are given pencils and a ream of blank paper and are required to reproduce, to the letter, the entire list. Each erroneous character docks 1 point from your score.

This task is akin to memorizing digits of pi. The world record for pi is over 60,000 digits. That's a lot more information than is needed to record all third-roll positions. So I feel confident that memory experts would be able to reproduce the list without any errors.

If I'm right about this, then it should follow that any competition for which reproducing the entire list is a viable strategy should also be a slam dunk for the memory expert. For example, if the test involves questions such as "31P-31P-61" and the expected response is the final character, then the memory expert can first write down the entire list, and then consult the list to find the answer. Thus the memory expert doesn't need "random access" to the information but only "sequential access."

However, if the contest involves presenting backgammon positions pictorially and requires a response in a short amount of time without any written aids, then I'm less sure that memory experts would outperform backgammon experts. That might be an interesting contest.

Messages In This Thread

 

Post Response
Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message:

If necessary, enter your password below:

Password:
 

 

[ View Thread ] [ Post Response ] [ Return to Index ] [ Read Prev Msg ] [ Read Next Msg ]

BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.