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Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?

Posted By: Marty Storer
Date: Sunday, 22 April 2012, at 10:09 p.m.

In Response To: Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN? (leobueno)

I don't think the presence of the Jacoby Rule makes a difference to the correct play in any of the book's problems.

In some cases it changes the magnitude of the difference between the best and second-best play. Without going back through e-mail and rollout archives, I'll mention a couple of examples where I think that's true. One is #96, where we discuss the effect of the Jacoby Rule on the position. It's probably also true for #31. But I'm very confident of the best play for #96, and pretty confident, though less so, about #31. If anyone wants to revisit #31 with an XGR+ or 4-ply no-Jacoby rollout, be my guest; #31 might be the best candidate for revisitation. I may do that myself (after checking to make sure we didn't already do so).

I agree that in general, the best move will be the same with or without Jacoby. Of course the Jacoby Rule will sometimes change the correct play, but in my experience that's not often at all.

I don't like the Jacoby Rule either: the reason offered by Jacoby and Crawford for adopting it was something like "It eliminates endless playing on for gammons"; in other words, it was thought to speed up money-game action, and maybe also to increase the average number of points at stake per game (because people would double earlier to try to cash in on juicy gammons). I don't think those possible effects are large enough to worry much about, and I'd rather have money games be as similar as possible to tournament matches. Many people double too often when they should be playing on, including me. In my case that's an effect no doubt due to Jacoby Rule habits inculcated early (besides not enough recent study).

Re-thanks to Tim Chow, Herb Gurland, and Alex Zamanian for all their pre-publication help. Their efforts were instrumental in making the book a better product. I'm glad Mary insisted on such a high level of "peer review."

Messages In This Thread

• Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
  leobueno -- Saturday, 21 April 2012, at 9:13 a.m.
  • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
    Casper van der Tak -- Saturday, 21 April 2012, at 10:20 a.m.
  • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
    Rick Janowski -- Saturday, 21 April 2012, at 12:06 p.m.
    • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
      Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 21 April 2012, at 8:23 p.m.
      • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
        Bob Koca -- Saturday, 21 April 2012, at 10:56 p.m.
    • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
      Bob Koca -- Thursday, 26 April 2012, at 8:14 p.m.
  • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
    Marty Storer -- Sunday, 22 April 2012, at 10:09 p.m.
    • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
      leobueno -- Monday, 23 April 2012, at 3:10 p.m.
      • Does Jacoby Rule affect checker play? Implications for Hickey and Storer's WHAT'S YOUR GAME PLAN?
        Marty Storer -- Monday, 23 April 2012, at 8:55 p.m.
    • Motivation for Jacoby Rule
      Timothy Chow -- Monday, 23 April 2012, at 10:50 p.m.
      • Motivation for Jacoby Rule
        Chuck Bower -- Tuesday, 24 April 2012, at 1:42 p.m.