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Kit Woolsey & Hal Heinrich 1996 336pp
Gammon
Press ISBN:1880604086
The New Ideas in Backgammon published in 2000 truly out does Woolsey and
Heinrich's 1996 book of the same title. One would ask, whats new? Having started
playing backgammon on the internet, I find the 2000 edition complete with tips
on the various tournaments, and competions found on the internet sites, such as
fibs and pogo. Highly recommend the insights, improves your game. See you all at
the tables!
Michael Ward from Phoenix, Arizona USA, July 8, 2000
This is a fantastic book for the intermediate and advanced player. The
authors skillfully dissect 104 difficult positions, pointing out even the most
subtle aspects. It is this careful observing and weighing, done out-loud, that
makes this book so valuable. In the end, you learn much more than the solutions
to these specific problems -- you learn how to reason about all future postions
you encounter.
A reader from St. Paul, MN, December 21, 1999
This book will take its place on my bookshelf next to Magriel's Backgammon
and Robertie's two-volume Advanced Backgammon. The material is exceptional in
all respects. First of all, this is a book of 104 problems that have been
systematically selected to give experts fits. In fact, in every case a majority
of 11 experts (the game's actual player, the two authors, plus a panel of 8)
failed to find the correct move. Additionally, the correct moves have been
validated by extensive human and computer analysis, so this book doesn't have
the "error rate" that other books have. The authors are world-class players and
world-class teachers of backgammon, so the writing is clear and crisp. A
fantastic book.
Brian Sheppard, Concord MA, July 7, 1999
Backgammon is wildly popular these days with Internet tournaments (and those
kind you have to roll the dice in) mobbed. You can have a lot of fun playing
this game without sinking your teeth into the subtleties of the difficult
problem positions in "New Ideas." If however, you would like to actually WIN one
of these competitions - your chances would be greatly improved by taking up the
challenge this book offers. Woolsey and Heinrich are able to verbalize how to
make these difficult decisions and the concepts they introduce are widely
applicable.
A reader from United States, February 24, 1999
This book really helped me improve my skills. There are two really good
sections on Doubling. A nice chapter on the back game. Other topics are
duplication, flexibility, priming, slotting.
David Rogers from Charlotte,
NC USA, August 7, 2001
This book, New Ideas in Backgammon by Kit Woolsey is the best backgammon book
I ever read. And, probably, ever will read. He throws light on positions that
have puzzled me for decades.
michael garner, from rgb, 11/21/96
There are three central pillars of collaboration on this book - the authors,
a panel of experts, and the computer-based neural network Jellyfish.
The premise of the book is that the best of the neural nets are now so
advanced, they play at least as well as carbon based experts. This is confirmed
out by a perusal of the top twenty ratings on FIBS that is becoming more and
more dominated by computer programs.
The layout of the book is a novel extension of the normal view position /
guess best play / read answer method used by the majority of backgammon books.
Woolsey and Henrich have captured over 100 real moves played by experts that
Jellyfish disagrees with. For each position, a panel of eight experts thought
out their personal preferential move, and this is compared with the move made
over the board, and Jellyfish's suggestion. If Jellyfish disagreed with both the
play made, and the majority of the panel, it is suggested that this is a "new
idea," and has a good chance of making the book. The authors and Fredrik Dahl,
author of Jellyfish, have gone to some lengths to weed out any eccentricities
displayed by the program.
The commentary goes through all the major alternative moves for each
position, showing their advantages and disadvantages. Each problem also comes
with an excellent summary that explains the general principles behind the
selected move. At the end of the book is a table showing the experts' decisions,
with their equity estimates.
The book is further subdivided into seven sections, grouping the problems
into such categories as running anchors, pay now/pay later, blitzing and
priming.
An excellent read, very instructive, and useful to intermediates and experts
alike.
Steve Pickard
See also information from the
publisher.
New Ideas in Backgammon by Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich is
published by Gammon Press, price US$40.00 plus
postage.
Other book reviews welcome! Email them to DocMartin@Gammoned.com
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