67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

501 Essential Backgammon Problems-Bill Robertie, March 26, 2000
 

As I start to read Bill Robertie's latest book, 501 Essential Backgammon Problems, I am informed in the preface that he is the world's best backgammon player. So far so good.

For those of you unaware, Robertie, former two time world champion, has already written many books on backgammon and together with Kent Goulding co-published the sadly now defunct, but at the time premier magazine "Inside Backgammon".

As the title suggests, it is a compilation of 501 problems, split 360 checker plays v 141 cube actions. (67 doubles 74 redoubles). After the introductory chapters covering notation/probability/basic doubling strategy etc, there are 26 chapters covering many of the important concepts in backgammon from the opening to the bearoff. These are:

The Opening, Flexibility, The Middle Game, The 5-point, One Man Back, Priming Games, Connectivity, Hit Or Not?, Crunch Positions, Action Doubles, Late Game Blitz, Post-Blitz Turnaround Games, Ace-Point Games Back Games, The Containment, Game Post-Ace-Point Games, Saving The Gammon, The Race, Various Endgames, Bearing Off Against Contact, The Blitz, Breaking Anchor, Too Good To Double?, Playing For A Gammon, The Bearoff, Holding Games,

The book manages to cram the 501 positions and analyses into 384 pages of a book measuring just 23x15cms. This is achieved by squashing the diagrams with the effect of making the checkers oval. The problems in each chapter are all bunched together first and the solutions at the end of the chapter hence cutting down on the need to avoid looking at the analysis.

It's target audience is everybody from beginner to expert level. The only group that maybe wouldn't find many parts of this book valuable would be world class players.

The problems are typical of positions that appear in everyday backgammon and not unusual or tricky positions that an expert may get wrong. The difficulty of the problems range from very easy to hard with the majority in the intermediate/advanced level. My guess is that the book would be suitable to players ranked up to elo 1900 on F.I.B.S. or Gamesgrid. Robertie has attempted to create a book of reference positions whose characteristics the reader can hopefully remember and apply and adapt over the board and for each problem, he typically gives a succinct 8-10 line analysis.

There are no references to any of the neural net backgammon programs in the book. I checked all the positions by rollout and did discover some disagreements between the bots' conclusions and Robertie's analysis. There were around 12 cube problems whose equity differed by more than 0.04 and also some checker play differences. Some of those positions would make good reading for the more expert players.

My only major criticism on the book is that in some of the checker play problems Robertie doesn't analyse all the potential choices or rejects one when in fact the equities are quite close.

The reasoning behind this maybe that that the merits of that checker play do not fit in with the theme of the chapter or are too complex. And on a personal note I prefer to see the pip count in diagrams.

Overall an excellent book suitable for either beginners who have learned the very basics or a good refresher book for more advanced players. Marks out of ten 8.5.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

super helpful, June 26, 2003
 

i keep going back to this book to relearn what it has taught me! backgammon is easy when the dice go your way. this book puts you in tough positions and tight spots and helps you get out of them. makes me a much more robust player.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

gammonline, July 7, 2004
 

This book contains invaluable information for the improving backgammon player. It suffers from it's unfortunate layout (as do all Robertie books) --- poorly located diagrams or solutions in relation to the diagrams. Still the contents are a must read (and reread) for any advancing player.

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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Hard work, May 20, 2003
 

If, like me, you purchase a book because you want a convenient portable format, then you'd better think twice before you stub up for this one.

I've just read the first section and it gave me a headache. The rub is that the problems are grouped together followed by the solutions. This means you spend your whole time skipping back and forth from problem to solution. Now Robertie suggests that you work through the whole group and write your own solutions on a piece of paper, then move to the solutions section and compare them with his. Well I don't see how this avoids the 'flip flopping,' because unless you can memorize all the positions--and there's 59 of them in the first section--you'll want to go back to have another look at the position so you're 'flip flopping' again.

This isn't just user-unfriendly, it's brutal! It makes the product importable, which is the whole point of a book, no?

I like to read on my commute to the office and have struggling through, keeping two fingers marking the pages I'm on. I think a three-handed Martian would find it hard!

And the biggest shame of all is that the content is excellent, so I'm reluctant to toss the thing because I know I'd be missing out. So, I'll struggle on...flip flop flip flop x 1002.

A great book spoilt by a clumbsy layout... too bad!

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Great buy!, January 21, 2003
 

Dont hesitate to buy this book. I dont think there is another backgammon book that gives so much content for 25 dollars. I think some problems are misanalysed, but thats a small number, maybe 5% only.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

This book improved my game significantly., March 6, 2001
 

While studying this book I noticed that my game improved dramatically. I gained a much better understanding of duplicating, slotting, and use of the cube. I am no expert but I am now challenging the best players in our club!

If you are looking for examples this IS the book you should get!

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