Games of Logic and Strategy (eg. Chess, Backgammon)

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Falchoon said:
the other one was that one with the black and white counters that you flip when you have both ends of a line covered, or played on paper rthe first to get 5 in a row.
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So what's this? Sounds like Othello, although not sure about the 5 in a row bit. In Go, you have to surround your opponent (I think)

Falchoon said:
stratego, those bomb placements, mate of mine at high school and me played it for hours on end.
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A couple of Stratego sites: http://www.edcollins.com/stratego/ + http://www.isfstratego.com/
 

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I can now say that I have played live backgammon for money. Went to the Melbourne Backgammon Club last night. $7 entry, $5 for round-robin tournament. Played three 5-point matches and won the first 5-3, lost the 2nd 4-5 and the 3rd 1-5, but I was fairly happy with my game. Played the first two matches quite well, a couple blunders here and there, but was totally destroyed in the 3rd game.
 
One of the world's best backgammon players, the very pretty Russian Victoria Smirnoff:

victoriasmirnoff002jq9.jpg
victoriasmirnoff011xj5.jpg
 
If anyone's interested in learning backgammon or improving their game, I can recommend downloading GNUBG from http://www.gnubg.org/. You can play against the gnubg bot and use a tutor to analyse your play. Note that in backgammon, bots are common and not frowned upon. Many programs and sites have bots which you can practice against.

For example, I have just started a 3-point match against the gnubg bot which I have configured for intermediate play

gnubgcrcw6.jpg


I have just rolled 65 and for a couple of reasons I believe my best move is 10/4 9/4 to make the 4-point in my home board. One, it removes two potentially vulnerable blots (points with 1 checker on them), and it makes a not-too-deep point in my home board. Other candidate plays would be 24/13 (called Lover's Leap) to escape one of my back checkers, or 9/3 8/3 to make my 3-point. In fact, gnubg offers a Hint Tutor which lists all candidate plays and ranks them by MWC (match winning chances aka equity):

gnubg2crnj5.jpg
 
Went on to a convincing victory. The bot ended up offering to resign for 2 points (a gammon) after I'd doubled earlier in the game. Thus, a gammon with the cube on 2 is worth 4 points, so I win the 3-point match 4-0 after 1 game :thumbsu:

gnubg3ax5.jpg


If the writing wasn't already on the wall, the final nail was hammered in with this 41 joker roll (joker = very good) allowing 13/12*/8* (!!!). In fact, so demoralising was this roll that the Hint Tutor suggested that 13/12*/8* was 10% better than any other play (that's very substantial).

gnubg4uc0.jpg
 
Gus Hansen To Be Commentator for World Series of Backgammon
23 July 2007
by World Series of Backgammon

World Series of Backgammon Enterprises announced today that Gus Hansen has joined John Clark as co-commentator and host Jessie Cantrell to complete the new World Series of Backgammon (WSOB) presentation team.

Gus Hansen is a professional poker and backgammon player, widely regarded as the best dual discipline player in the world and winner of the 2007 Aussie Millions poker and 4-time WPT title winner. John Clark, an experienced backgammon and poker commentator, is an acclaimed backgammon player who has been ranked UK #1 for much of the past decade. Jessie Cantrell is the well known anchor of the Black20 News, the popular broadband entertainment network.

http://www.gammonvillage.com/backgammon/news/article_display.cfm?resourceid=5238
 
Used to play a bit of backgammon as a kid so i downloaded GNUB, started off playing intermediate but I'm a sucker for punishment so now i play grandmaster, it beats me more than i win but i have won a few games against it..

Ps Im sure some of the rolling of the dice is rigged, one game the puter threw 5 doubles in a row, lol couldnt believe it!
 
Yeah I get sick of the succession of joker rolls sometimes too.

Rather than playing grandmaster, I suggest you play a lower level but up the ply settings.
 
Just had a game n beat grandmaster 7-0, um yeh i might try that, i dont really get what all that means to be honest though


Edit, had a bit of a look, think i can guess what u mean now by increasing the ply's
 

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A ply is a turn for one side.

One-ply evaluation is fastest and least accurate. In 1-ply evaluation, a bot uses its stored knowledge to estimate how much the position is worth.

Two-ply evaluation involves lookahead: the bot uses its 1-ply method to evaluate alternative plays for each of the 21 distinct dice rolls. Results for the top evaluation choices are then combined to form the final 2-ply evaluation for the position.

Three-ply evaluation looks ahead a step further, using the 1-ply method on all the opponent’s replies to the first player’s possible moves. That’s 441 combinations of the first player’s roll followed by the opponent’s, with at least several move choices considered for each.

etc etc

You can usually adjust the ply settings for lookahead and cube decisions.
 
Cos I ain't been playing poker, my focus switched to backgammon. Purchased a board from Michigan (USD$110 + $60 for postage!), I love it, heaps better than anything I could get here in Melbourne (note how the points and checkers are red and black :thumbsu:).

bgboardio5.jpg


Been to the Melbourne Backgammon club the past 2 weeks, going back tonight. You pay $7 for the privilege, then can pay $5 or $20 for a round-robin tournament, or just play cash games. I've just been paying $5.

Was 1-2 two weeks ago, and 2-1 last week (you get 3 matches), but you really need to win your 3 matches to win any money. But for my limited experience, I reckon I've done very well so far. I'm definitely improving, and I've bought the two definitive texts on backgammon, namely
- Backgammon by Paul Magriel
- Modern Backgammon by Bill Robertie

Those of you that have read a poker book or two would be familiar with the names, Robertie having co-authored Dan Harrington's books, and Magriel being credited with the M ratio (aka Magriel's M, or just M (akin to Kill Phil's CPR)).
 
I've now been to the Melbourne Backgammon Club 4-5 times and starting to become a regular. We play a round robin tournament each week, and of the 3 5-point matches I get to play, I've always won one or two. Yet to manage 3 from 3 which would put me in the prizemoney.

I'm going to head down to Geelong Backgammon Club one Tuesday night so I can double my backgammon fix.

On a different subject, below is a pic of Gus Hansen at a backgammon board. I've read he was one of the bookies' favorites to win the 2003 World Backgammon Championships in Monte Carlo, although I think he went to Vegas instead for the WSOP.

picture03hz8.jpg
 
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