In a museum in London i came across a boardgame called Ur :
link 1
link 2

maybe its a nice addition to the backgammon variants that we have ?

I am not even sure if its like backgammon ... havent studied it a lot yet ... just noticed its a race game :)

just thought to post it here before its several months later and i have had time to look at it for real :)

alanback: *nod* would be the same for me :)

alanback: it will be fun ... i just need to make time .. although probably less time than i would need by doing it by hand .. or at least less time than doing it by hand 3 times :)

alanback: *nod* i will contact fencer if i would do something like that

1 automatic check wont be a problem though as i would have done the same by hand otherwise .. it will be different though if i run the program every hour :)

TC: you can also grab it from the page itself .. insert a webbrowser control in your program .. make the control go to the page (which can even be done with a guest account on this site) .. download the complete page, filter the data, go to the next action :)

playBunny: *nod* thats how i had it in mind as well :)

playBunny: true :) i never wrote a program which used information from a website to update though

(although i can see how i can do it (probably :)))

TC: the easiest way to do it would be to determine how many players are in the top 30% for each type, then go to the list with the least ranked players, which would be anti-backgammon ... go through the top 30%, click on the players profiles and check if they are within the top 30% for each type .. if so .. then add the name and ranks to a spreadsheet ..

at least thats what i did with the top 100 (although i checked all the names in the crowded top 100 ... which was just a random type to start with :))

Marfitalu: lol! nice i didnt realize you could form a word with it :)
b = backgammon
r = race backgammon
a = anti backgammon
n = nackgammon
h = hyper backgammon

TC: *nod* .. ideal would be 4 sub types :)

back + nack
back + nack + crowded + race
b + n + c + r + h
b + n + c + r + h + a

thats quite some work though :)

TC: *nod* ... i suggested 10% .. but 20% seems better as there so few ranked players for anti-backgammon

*sniff* i am not in the top 20% of anti-backgammon .. so i might do it for 30% ;)

playBunny: you didnt even get a splinter ?? i knew i aimed bad .. but i didnt know it was that bad ;)

playBunny: :) .... but remember that game i had before .. in which i did win in a similar position ... opponent beared off almost all, me with a single on 1 (or 24) ..

i guess have to forget that game though and dont use it as a guidance :)

thanks! the game had me wonder for a moment .. i have learned some more about the odds now though .. will drop it like a smelly dead cat for sure next time :)

frolind: *nod* seemed quite some labor to me .. was hoping for a faster way :)

grenv: ah ok .. a little under 10% .. hmm .. i dont have a feel for % in this game yet .. is 10% a chance to take into account or can you neglect it ? ;)

frolind: because the 3 is lower or because the 6 is higher ?
(than the 4 or 5 :))

or for another reason ?

(remember you are dealing with a blonde one on this side ;))

frolind: i like confusions .. makes me think :)

is 3&6 better or 4&5 when you might have more than 1 chance ?

grenv: i am not sure if i would have been gammoned .. i had most of my pieces in my home .. i would have probably escaped when he opened his 5 and 6 position .. leaving me with an average number of about 5 or 6 rolls to bear 1 piece off

but there was still a chance

i wouldnt have doubled yet in his position .. as it would have wanted to see if i could be lucky for a gammon .. and i would not .. then i would double a bit later anyway

grenv: *nod* i looked at the dice
3&6 bear off with: 3+3,6 & 4+4,6 & 5+5,6 & 6+3,4,5,6
4&5 bear off with: 3+3 & 4+4,5,6 & 5+4,5,6 & 6+4,5,6

both have 10 rolls to bear off (out of 36 possible rolls)

but! there might be a difference with the left over in case one isnt able to bear off .. for example one rolls 1+2 .. then the position 3&6 will bear off the 3 piece leaving a single 6 piece .. where the 4&5 position cant bear any pieces off leaving 2 pieces on the board closer to the finish

so 3&6 might be better in case one doesnt bear off at the first roll ... but i am not sure about this one

any thoughts ? ;)

another cube action which i found rather tough .. i declined because accepting would make it a 4 point game in a 5 point match ... creating a crawford game if i would lose without being gammoned .. i didnt like that and think my chances are better by me needing 5 points and my opponent only 3

any thoughts ?

frolind: i went with 3 & 6 because somehow 6 seems more powerful to me .. but i wrote it out to be sure and it made no difference :)
what simple rule do you use ? (if i dare ask ;))

(btw i lost the game because my opponent rolled double 4 for his last 3 pieces :))

would you rather have your last 2 pieces at 4 & 5 or at 3 & 6 ?

each option has 10 out of 36 rolls to finish .. but which is the best ?

(btw it happened to me in a game, but i made the move already .. i went with 3 & 6)

pentejr: lol :) i will update the list next year i guess :) get working!

pentejr: *nod* i am playing crowded with him now .. and told him about it ... he will soon be in the top with crowded as well (only needed 3 more games last night) and only needed 6 more games of anti (which takes a bit longer though :))

i know of the aversion of some players against anti ... its a great game though .. requires some different tactics and tricks ... but fun ones .. the disadvantage is the high number of moves thats needed to finish a game though
(with the cube it can be done faster ... but not always ;))

i will try to make a similar list without anti somewhere next week .. i am not sure if i will have time though

a better list would be to put everyone on it who is in the top 10% (or another %) of the list .. as there are a lot more people on the backgammon rankings than on the other types :)

i see the types as 4 groups :
back & nack
race & crowded
hyper
anti

playBunny: *nod* thanks :) looking better ... (although not perfect yet! ;))

here is a list of players who are in the top 100 of all 6 gammon types on this site
(most players not on this list miss an established rating in antibackgammon or are outside the top 100 of backgammon or hypergammon (as those types have the most ranked players i guess)

i will see if i can make a similar list without antibackgammon sometime next week :)

anyway .. here it is .. the column order is: backgammon,nackgammon,antibackgammon,race backgammon,crowded backgammon,hyper backgammon,average

the list of the rankings

• frolind: 4,16, 7,34, 3,42,17.67
  
• Hrqls: 33,12,18,19, 8,17,17.83
  
• basplund: 8,15, 5, 6,38,17,20.00
  
• Arpa: 7,89,22, 1, 1, 4,20.67
  
• Zach: 21,60,20,32,24,36,32.17
  
• whikki: 48,33,31,49,41,25,37.83
  
• lovelysharon: 69,52,21,29,53,20,40.67
  
• incognito: 42,19, 9,36,87,90,47.17
  
• TC: 87,29,48, 4,17,98,47.17
  

the list of the bkrs

• frolind: 2308,1920,1969,1896,2016,2111,2036.67
  
• Arpa: 2248,1760,1842,2048,2102,2192,2032.00
  
• basplund: 2248,1929,2012,1958,1815,2106,2011.33
  
• Hrqls: 2186,1937,1868,1930,1909,2148,1996.33
  
• incognito: 2177,1917,1963,1890,1727,2077,1958.50
  
• Zach: 2202,1801,1854,1909,1862,2117,1957.50
  
• lovelysharon: 2158,1817,1846,1911,1783,2140,1942.50
  
• whikki: 2174,1858,1729,1847,1811,2136,1925.83
  
• TC: 2149,1840,1517,1979,1877,2073,1905.83
  
  
  
  (i hope this will lineup a bit ;) .. i guess it didnt :( .. i wish i could make a table or use another font :))

playBunny: *nod* all that is crucial when reviewing a game/match :)

playBunny: when i click on a game in a match it shows me the final points in that match .. a simple solution would be to show the current matchpoints at the time of that game :)

playBunny: lol .. yep that match :) ah well .. i will do the math sometime later :)

playBunny: ouch! thats a lot of work .. but i took my day off from work today ;)

is there a way to find out the way a match went and how many points were won by each game ?
i think i asked before but cant remember if there was a way to view that

i think i cant view the points won by each game in a match ?

grenv: true ... but some opponents like a game to be fast. i dont mind when a game takes a bit longer myself, but i know some people do, so i sometimes resign when its impossible to win

(i am just learning thats more often possible to win that i thought before :))

playBunny: :) when i can still send a piece to bar i wont resign anymore, i used to do that though :)

playBunny: lol :) that is quite like my own thoughts :)

i almost resigned that game, but i thought it would be just 2 more moves so i could play it out (and lose gracefully ;))

but then a miracle happened ... and the miracle stayed :)

i wondered if i was wrong and the chance to end like this might be quite high so i could try to focus on it in games where i am a little behind ... but i guess i should not ... i was just very lucky as sometimes/rarely happens :)

i have another game (running still so i wont name it here) against the same player where it is going the same way ... although a bit less extreme .. no cube game so no worries .. but i wont resign before i am completely sure :)

playBunny: move 35 (where the link leads to :)) .. or maybe 1 move earlier

playBunny: if he would have offered a double ... i would have declined ... but .. how much of a blunder would it have been to accept ?

what were the chances to win a game like that ?

this might be quite useful information for future games .. although these situations dont happen too often (in my games yet) .. i might go for them more often if the chances are higher than i thought them to be :)

playBunny: ah ok .. suppose its a 21 point match, and its the first game of the match ... to keep it as clean as possible with all options still open

Here is another game.
Dont look at the way it finishes (although me telling you this gives it away i guess :))

if it was a cubed game and he would have doubled i would have declined the double directly!

but ... does anyone have time and is willing to do an analysis of this game if the cube was used ?
please ? ;)

frolind: great site! thanks!

thanks to all for the analysis .... it helps me a lot to decide on future cases ... although i will need to practice these theories, and what i think to understand from it :), a lot more :)

knowing your opponent is a good advantage on cube decisions .. some players accept too many cube actions, some players can be scared easily ... and some players know how to advantage of your mistakes :)

grenv: i always though 25% chance to win was enough to accept a double ?

lately i am forcing myself to play more defensive though .. i have lost too many points by accepting too much so far :)

WhiteTower: *nod* thats why i posted it ... being a newbie at this myself as well :)

btw i just won the crawford game, so far the cube declining was ok ... now we are up to the final game :) we will have fun :)

playBunny: *phew* so i did the right thing (according to the rollout) .. but considered (a tiny bit) a major blunder ;)

her builders made me worry ... if she wouldnt have had those then i would have probably accepted .. although i guess it still wouldnt have been the right thing to do :)

grenv: *nod* i think so as well

BIG BAD WOLF: true ... but declining a cube action will cost you a game while it can win you the match

grenv: *nod* i had a bad feeling about that game .. i cant count chances yet though so i didnt have a clue about 'about 28%' :)

she is a good player, at least our games seem to be about even ... so its tough :)

(btw i wont tell her you called her him ;))

the player results in the cubed teamtournament counts all games separately. should it count all matches for this individual result ?

i am trying to learn how to use the cube better

i am wondering though .. i declined the cube action in this game ... i didnt think i could win this game (too many safe options and some steps ahead of me) .. accepting would mean this game makes the match .. but declining means i have to win the crawford game first, and then another game to win the match ... i am not sure if i have a better chance winning the next 2 games than i would have had to win the doubled game (which i declined)

any opinions ?
(i think its ok to talk about this cube action as it has been handled already ? if not, please let me know and i will remove this question :))

wellywales: he wants to be a rook ?
hmm i can imagine .. it must be boring and lonely to be the only white king ;)

BIG BAD WOLF: ah! thanks! indeed the difference is the number of pieces which are beared off already .. i didnt notice that :)

i agree completely with you .. now we just need to bribe/blackmail fencer ;)
does anyone knows what he wants for christmas present ? ;)

Pedro & Vikings: in this game my opponent resigned but i only got 1 point for the game

(my opponent knew i would get 3 points if he resigned, he wondered about the 1 point as well)

how come vikings game gave him gammon points upon resigning of his opponent ? (although it should have been a backgammon?) while my game doesnt ?

does anyone have any idea about the way this bug works ?