Joseph, good question. Ken's advice is valid and helpful.
Here are my thoughts.
(1) Start by learning the opening roll. Sounds easy, but believe it or not, only a tiny percentage of those participating in the Championship Division of ABT events know how to play all of the opening rolls for all scores in a 9pt match. XG has the rollout data of the opening roll positions in its "Book." By this, I mean that if you ask for an XG evaluation of an opening roll in a 9pt match, XG gives you a stored rollout result. Here is an example:
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| XGID=-b----E-C---eE---c-e----B-:0:0:1:64:0:2:0:7:10 | |||||
| Blue to play 64 | |||||
| 1. | Book1 | 8/2 6/2 | eq: +0.113 | |||
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| 2. | Book1 | 24/18 13/9 | eq: +0.102 (-0.011) | |||
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| 3. | Book1 | 24/14 | eq: +0.095 (-0.018) | |||
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| 1 Generated by Steven Carey on 7/31/2012 using eXtreme Gammon 2.00 93312 Games rolled with Variance Reduction. Dice Seed: 19 Moves: 3-ply, cube decisions: XG Roller | ||||||
eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10, MET: Kazaross XG2
I set up the opening position and gave Blue the problem of how to play 64 when trailing 0-2 in a 7pt match. When you ask XG for the evaluation, it gives you the 93K rollout result in the XG "Book." This is an example of an opening position that I believe would be misplayed by a significant percentage of Championship competitors. I am not recommending that you "memorize" these opening roll positions; I am recommending instead that you study and learn them.
(2) After mastering the opening roll for all scores, then move on to the second roll. This data is also in the book, at least for the following four scores: Money, DMP, Gammon Save and Gammon Go. Start with studying all of the responses to opening 21$ (21-slot, 13/11 6/5). There are 84 positions to learn (21 distinct rolls x 4 scores). On the second day, move on to 21S (24/23 13/11) and learn all 84 of the responses. Do one of these a day.
(3) The above two items will get you started learning how to play the checkers, but to get started with learning the doubling cube, you should study the earliest possible blitzing positions, fourth-roll cubes. You should read the articles by David Presser and Igor Erovenko in PrimeTime, Summer and Fall of 2016. Learning the cube action in these positions for Money is a good start, but you also need to know the cube action for all scores in a 7pt match for all of these fourth-roll cubes. You need to consider not just the fourth-roll doubling positions appearing in the articles by David and Igor, but there are between 50 and 100 of these that are interesting enough to merit being studied.
(4) Study the other end of the game with short bearoffs. Learn the cube action in all the positions in which each side has two or fewer checkers in the home board. Then do what Mochy did and learn the cube action for all the three-checker bearoff positions. This will take more than a day, even if you work at it from sunrise to sunset.
(5) Have you read the book by Marty Storer and Mary Hickey, "What's Your Game Plan?" Great book! Also, read "Backgammon Boot Camp" by Walter Trice. You may find "Backgammon Openings" by Nack Ballard and myself to be helpful. All can be ordered from Carol Cole. Her website is www.flintbg.com.
This will keep you busy for a while. When you have done all the above and want to know what to do next, just ask.
Good luck!!