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BGonline.org Forums
skills & talents for chess & backgammon
Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer In Response To: skills & talents for chess & backgammon (Bob Koca)
Date: Saturday, 26 February 2011, at 1:33 p.m.
My thoughts exactly! Robertie misses the point, by setting "complexity" = number of win-levels from top to button.
By that definition, arm-wrestling would be one of the most complex sports in history!
However, I also think that the same distinction is what's confusing a lot of people as to how easy it is to become "WC" (whatever the definition is). Certainly, you can quickly get rid of the worst errors in your game by reading 1 book and then playing the bot or a chouette for some time. But it's the smaller errors from there on the skewed match equity situations that occurs in som long matches, understanding difficult concepts that arise only in a very few games.
If you look at chess, having "holes" in your repertoire can be exploited by a skilled opponent, and will cost you points. In backgammon it merely costs you very small chunks of equity! And the better player cannot steer the games as easily into the situations where he's relatively stronger.
Going from 60% favorite to 62% favorite in BG in some scenario, could require a LOT of hard work I guess. Even going from 55% to 57% for two "world class players" would be VERY challenging.
It's sort of like moving from a PR of 10 to a PR of 5 must be MUCH easier than going from 3 to 2, even though the payoff in win% is much higher at the first step.
Imagine you could make a match format, where you sit down and play, then "call errors" on your opponent during the game, finally you sum those errors up (in lost ME, or gained if you call one incorrectly). I bet you'd have many more levels then...
I've played chess (many years ago though, reaching in the low 1700s ELO, so I was never close to WC). I recall a lot of people didn't realize, how much effort that it took, to go from "IM" to "GM". And in other sports it's the same situation. Golf (I've played at about scratch), anyone (almost) could play down to a single handicap. Anyone, just put in the effort, get the right coaghing, it's a matter of time. Does that make it an easy game? Well Going from 4 to scratch can be a very very big challenge. And yet, the average weekend golfer can have a hard time telling the difference between the 4 and scratch golfer!
I think backgammon is very complex, it's just very easy to get to a level where your winning chances are so high vs. anyone else, that you can consider yourself a "strong" player, maybe even "WC".
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