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Nackgammon: Opening moves (SQZR@)

Posted By: Nack Ballard
Date: Saturday, 17 June 2017, at 9:54 p.m.

In Response To: My Takeaway From This (Paul Weaver)





White is Player 2

score: 0
pip: 194
Unlimited Game
Jacoby Beaver
pip: 194
score: 0

Blue is Player 1
XGID=-bb---D-C---dD---c-d---BB-:0:0:1:00:0:0:3:0:10

Nackgammon (opening position)


Rollout details for Nackgammon's opening moves can be viewed here. (Does anyone know why most are displayed twice?)

Opening 42P, 31P, 61P, 32@, 43@ and 65@ (which make the 4pt, 5pt or 7pt on one side or the other) are considered "no-brainers." Below are nacbracs for the other nine rollouts (which are detailed at the link above):

...NG 21 .[@ V10 u30 v35] "<41*10
...NG 41 .[Q U11 T38] "<41*10
...NG 51 .[S U7 V28 s73] "<41*10
...NG 52 .[Q Z5 z7 R23 S24] "<82*41 10
...NG 62 .[S Q1 R2 r11 V26 C64] "<103**20 10
...NG 53 .[Z P20 z25 Q42 R44 r53 S59 V64] "<35*10 103*20 10
...NG 63 .[Q r3 R18 S29 V56] "<82*10
...NG 54 .[Z Q29 r32 R47 S57 D109] "<20 82*10
...NG 64 .[R S9 U37] "<20*10

Nactation Key: R = Run, S = Split (and down), Z = reverse split (and down), Q = Quadruple split, U = Up, V = Variant up, @ = anchor, P = Point, T = sTack/Tower, C = Cross, D = Down.
explanation of nacbracs

In other bot rollouts, Snowie matched XG's top play in all cases. GnuBG matched except for 51U (by .002), 62R (by .002), 63r (by .003) and 64S (by .001).

Assuming you trust the XG rollouts, you can remember the best Nackgammon opening plays by the string

.....S Q Z R @

You can remember this string as "SQueeZeR anchor." (consonants only in the first word). Here's how it works:

We assume you know to make (or anchor on) a 4pt, 5pt or 7pt with the six no-brainer rolls. The remaining plays are on a descending pattern of four-apart, three-apart, two-apart, one-apart, except that there is a "5" in the middle. The detailed explanation of the hierarchy is:

...If the dice are FOUR-apart (62 or 51), S (Split)
...If the dice are THREE-apart (63 or 52), Q (Quadruple split).
...If neither but they have a 5 (54 or 53), Z (reverse split).
...If the dice have no 5 but are TWO-apart (64), R (Run).
...If the dice are ONE-apart (21), @ (anchor).

Alternately, the whole thing can be remembered as "four is S, three is Q, 54 53 is Z, Run with biggest, @nchor with smallest."

Or you can even lump in 21@ with the no-brainers ("always @ or P"), which leaves SQueeZeR.

Nack

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