BGonline.org Forums

Searching bear-off databases

Posted By: Ray Kershaw
Date: Saturday, 26 June 2010, at 4:47 p.m.

In Boot Camp, Walter Trice says that 7 on the 6pt, 5 on the 5pt and 3 on the 4pt is the position with least wastage of all positions with 15 checkers. Therefore Trice not only created a program to give the wastage of any 15 checker position (and he has made that available to Gammon Village subscribers) but also he was able to automate a search of such positions.

I wish to ask if there is available to the public any software with which one could obtain a subset of bear off positions which meet criteria set by the user ? For example, a subset might be "all positions with 8 checkers and wastage over 5 pips". More complex subsets might refer to both players' home boards, to the position of the cube, to expectation, to the probability of winning and so on.

Looking in early Chicago Points, I see that Dean Muench and Larry Strommen could do these searches. I am sure other gifted programmers have tackled this. It would be a fun toy to play with.