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Backgammon psychology

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 4:36 a.m.

In Response To: Backgammon psychology (Bob Koca)

I hear this argument a lot but frankly I don't believe it makes any sense. Temporarily he won't be making any mistakes, but I'm quite happy if he dances until the literal end of the game even though his error rate will be zero. The relevant errors are those he commits if and when the game turns around. Typically this will be after he hits a late shot and tries to contain my checker. As we've seen recently on BGO, even XG2 has trouble with this kind of containment, so what chance do we poor carbon-based life forms have?

To put it more vividly if less accurately, you're asking me if I'd take the following bargain: my opponent will play perfectly when he's going to lose anyway, and will make whopper after whopper whenever he sees daylight. Why on earth wouldn't I take such a bargain?

Messages In This Thread

• Backgammon psychology
  Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 2:08 a.m.
  • Backgammon psychology
    Bob Koca -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 3:21 a.m.
    • Backgammon psychology
      konstantin -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 5:23 a.m.
      • Backgammon psychology
        Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 10:13 p.m.
    • Backgammon psychology
      poseidon -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 11:55 a.m.
  • Backgammon psychology
    Stick -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 6:07 a.m.
    • Backgammon psychology
      Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 9:47 p.m.
      • Backgammon psychology
        Stick -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 10:20 p.m.
  • Backgammon psychology
    Seth -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 3:09 p.m.
  • Backgammon psychology
    Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 9:46 p.m.
    • Backgammon psychology
      Bob Koca -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 11:26 p.m.
      • Backgammon psychology
        Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 16 January 2013, at 11:44 p.m.
        • Backgammon psychology
          Bob Koca -- Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 12:10 a.m.
          • Backgammon psychology
            Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 4:36 a.m.
            • Backgammon psychology
              Bob Koca -- Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 5:53 a.m.
              • Backgammon psychology
                Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 3:29 p.m.
                • Here's another way to put it...
                  Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 17 January 2013, at 4:02 p.m.