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BGonline.org Forums
What, if anything, can other games teach us?
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: What, if anything, can other games teach us? (DaveT)
Date: Saturday, 19 January 2013, at 2:46 p.m.
The specific traits it takes to be a great backgammon player are often similar to the traits required to excel at other mind games and even sports. So it is no surprise that Gus is a great backgammon player, poker player, and tennis player.
But if your goal is to improve your backgammon skills, while there certainly are things you will learn in mastering other games that could help your backgammon game, it doesn't seem a very efficient approach to specifically improving backgammon. Your time and efforts are better spent studying backgammon.
However, I do believe there is great benefit in honing specific skills that will directly improve your backgammon game. I have been working hard at improving my math skills, for example. The faster and better I can multiply and divide and do mathematical estimates over the board, the better I can play. (I recommend Art Benjamin's book, The Secrets of Mental Math.)
Practice cluster counting and other shortcuts to pip counting (UCC).
Work on organization and memory skills to help you access important reference positions and reference numbers such as take points and match equities.
Develop a library of positions and articles for each area of the game and study those independently.
And read books and articles on self-improvement and honing your mental and competitive skills.
Again, because many games require similar skills it won't "hurt" your backgammon game to get better at bridge or gin or poker, except that you would be spending more of your time working on information and skills specific to those other games that do not necessarily carry over to backgammon directly.
(This is, of course, only my personal, expert opinion.)
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