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Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Thursday, 9 August 2012, at 11:47 p.m.

In Response To: Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair (Tom Keith)

Tom wrote an excellent review here on BGOnline and I just wanted to add a few comments. I bought Ray's book and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a really splendid collection of backgammon paradoxes and oddities, very attractively printed and organized. There's nothing else like it. If you have enjoyed some of the offbeat backgammon puzzles that appear on BGO from time to time, such as finding the fewest number of rolls to return to the starting position, finding the position with the lowest nonzero winning chances, cataloguing Jacoby paradox positions, and so forth, then this book is for you.

Tom Keith wrote:

In a few cases, I wish there were more explanation about the motivation for a puzzle. For example, Chapter 45 talks about "Count Down" but doesn't explain what that is.

This one took me a minute to understand, as well. The number appearing in big boldface type contains the digits from 1 to 9 in descending order. I don't think I would ever have noticed this kind of oddity on my own.

Messages In This Thread

• Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair
  Tom Keith -- Monday, 9 July 2012, at 12:50 a.m.
  • Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair
    Michael Crane -- Monday, 9 July 2012, at 2:10 p.m.
  • Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair
    Marv Porten -- Monday, 9 July 2012, at 5:57 p.m.
    • Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair
      Tom Keith -- Monday, 9 July 2012, at 8:15 p.m.
  • Raymond Kershaw's book, Backgammon Funfair
    Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 9 August 2012, at 11:47 p.m.