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Another Lurker/Student perspective

Posted By: W Womack
Date: Friday, 9 October 2009, at 5:09 p.m.

In Response To: S versus Z in nactation (Timothy Chow)

From a very new lurker/student perspective my biggest issue with nactation is that I am going to have to spend some of my limited backgammon study time on learning the notation system, whereas the tradition system really does not require learning. While I realize that most of the choices of the notation attempt to make a easy memorable connection between the notation and the play there still seems to be a lot of "artificiality" in the convention that must be learned. (This is not a criticism as other than the traditional system I am not sure you could create a backgammon notation system without this). However it does mean that the student will have to work harder just to be able to follow what is being discussed.

On the other hand, when you begin to learn any new discipline one of the things you have to do is learn the "language" associated with that discipline, and in doing that you begin to gain added knowledge just from understanding its language. I am not sure yet, but my sense is that because nactation is tied more closely to what the play does, rather than just how the checkers are moved, it might be part of developing a better understanding of the plays. As a simple example if you see the opening 42 annotated in the traditional 8/4 6/4 format you can visualize that you have made your 4 point, but 42P seems to better emphasize, at least to me, the purpose in the move which is making the point. Since I am just starting to learn nactation I am not sure if this holds or not, but that is my initial read.

Finally, since there has been a lot of discussion about promoting backgammon on this board, I also have mixed feelings about the notation in that regards. Part of me says that if nactation becomes the standard then it may be a barrier to people starting to learn the game, as they will have to spend the upfront time to learn the notation. On the other hand, if someone is not willing to learn that they are probably not interested enough in learning the game to be someone that would stick with it in the long run.

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