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Barclay Cooke and Rene Orlean 1980 338pp
Prentice Hall
ISBN:0131261029
Barclay Cooke was one of the legendary players on the International
tournament circuit during the 1960's and 1970's. Since the halcion days of the
70's backgammon boom, Cooke's game-plans and tactics have engendered much
criticism particularly since advent of the modern neural net backgammon
programs. (See for example, Jeremy Bagai's excellent critique of 70's play
'Classic Backgammon Revisited which highlights numerous conceptual blunders in
Paradoxes and Probabilities with the aid of Snowie.). Championship Backgammon
marks the final chapter in Cooke's 'trilogy' of backgammon works (see also
reviews of 'The Cruelest Game', and 'Paradoxes and Probabilities'), and does
little to break the mould set by its predecessors. In short, the text bears
shocking testament to the relatively low standards of the 70's game. In
comparison to todays top players, Cooke and his ilk would be classed as
Advanced/Intermediate players.
The modern student of the game would gain
little technical knowledge from the text. However, the book is worthy of perusal
for a number of other reasons, not least of which are its historical and
entertainment value. In Championship Backgammon, Cooke teamed up with Candadian
Champion Rene Orlean providing lively, and at times brutal, commentary on the
first 16 games of an Inter-Atlantic Duplicate Backgammon challenge between the
USA and Great Britain. The tournament, played at London's Clermont club, pitched
Barclay Cooke and his son Walter (Team USA) against British backgammon stars Joe
Dwek and Phillip Martyn, in a series of 40 'money-games'. The novel format of
Duplicate Backgammon was an attempt to minimize the luck element of the game.
"Two tables were to be set up in different rooms, each pairing one
Englishman against one American. If at Table 1, England had the Red men, then at
Table 2, America would be Red. A referee would roll the same dice for both
tables, so that, throughout the match, every roll would be the same for both
teams, and, theoretically at least, no complaints [about luck] by either side
would hold water, because whatever number any contestant would be required to
play, the other member of the opposing team had to do likewise in the other
room."
The first three concise sections of the book relate the
historical background to the match and feature entertaining mini-biographies of
the players. These introductory sections reveal key differences in the style and
attitude of the protagonists and amply set the scene and suspense for the meat
of the book - the sharp critical play-by-play commentary from the two authors.
Numerous tri-color board diagrams illustrate each key position, however modern
readers may take some time to get used to the arcane board notation (R5, W5 etc)
and the use of arrows indicating the actual move played may spoil the enjoyment
of those readers who prefer a 'match-quiz' format. Cookes technical analyses,
though often way off the mark, are as ever, an entertaining window on the
thought processes of the 'experts'. A keen focus on the psychological state of
the players during each game does much to amplify the book's overall
resonance.
In summary the book would only be of interest to the keenest
modern enthusiast or collector. Beginners would likely find the style far too
advanced and Intermediate/Advanced would find much to criticize from a technical
viewpoint.
Mark Driver, 01/25/02
Other book reviews welcome! Email them to
DocMartin@Gammoned.com
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