Ken Larsen’s Web Site - Backgammon Tips
Flashcards
It is very easy to learn the basic rules of backgammon. One can begin playing the game with less than 60 minutes of instruction. However, to excel at backgammon is a very time consuming activity. The learning process is frustrated by the element of luck in the game. Good dice can turn poor strategy into wins, and bad dice can turn good strategy into losses. To really learn good strategy you need to do more than play. You need to study backgammon literature.
The problem with studying backgammon literature is threefold:
1.) Backgammon books can be pretty boring.
2.) Backgammon texts occasionally disagree with each other on strategy. This is particularly true of books written prior to the 1990s when computer analysis of backgammon was begun.
3.) There are nuances of backgammon that you have to be exposed to numerous times before you begin to assimilate the underlying principle.
To cope with the above pitfalls … and because I have too much time on my hands! …, I’ve adopted a study technique employed by elementary schools: flash cards. I’ve created 1300 flash cards from various book and internet sources, and I review at least a few every day.
To cut right to the chase, let me show the front and rear of one of my flashcards.
Sample flashcard
Front of flashcard:
Each of my flashcards is a 4” x 6” (102 mm x 152 mm) photograph taken with my 35 mm camera of a problem that I set up on my backgammon board. The “2 2” represents the dice roll. I used large numbers from a lettering kit for mailboxes, because they’re more legible than the dice in my backgammon set.
I set up all problems so that red moves counter-clockwise, and red is the one to whom the problem is addressed. This is compatible with the view for a Pogo player.
The most tedious element of setting up a problem is that books vary in their board orientation and checker colors. Some have red going clockwise; some have white as the one to whom the problem is addressed. This can be confusing if you jump from book to book.
Rear of flashcard:
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24/22(2), 6/4(2) is the solution to the problem expressed using standard backgammon notation
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The checkmark indicates that this solution is consistent with Gammonlab’s solution. If Gammonlab had a different solution, I would indicate it via: “Gammonlab: 13/7*/5”.
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“Lamford 100-8” indicates that this is problem #8 in “100 Backgammon Puzzles” by Paul Lamford (copyright 1999).
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“6, 12, 17, 20” indicates that I got this problem wrong on my 6th, 12th, 17th and 20th passes through my pile of flashcards.
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The text “Red thus strengthens his forward position and ..." is Lamford's explanation for why the recommended solution is correct. Having the explanation printed on the rear of the flash card accelerates the learning process. If you know the “why”, you’ll more easily remember the solution and adapt the solution to similar situations.
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I printed the above information on 1” x 2 5/8” (25 x 67 mm) white address label stock and affixed to the back of the photograph. Larger label stock could be used to facilitate printing by a computer.
Sources used
My flashcards are problems taken from the following sources:
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“501 Essential Backgammon Problems” by Bill Robertie (copyright 2000)
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“100 Backgammon Puzzles” by Paul Lamford (copyright 1999)
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“Classic Backgammon Revisited” by Jeremy Paul Bagai (copyright 2001)
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“Paradoxes and Probabilities” by Barclay Cooke (copyright 1978)
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“The Backgammon Quiz Book” by Prince Joli Kansil (copyright 1978)
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Quiz problems found the Backgammon Galore web site, http://www.bkgm.com/ (click Articles->Learning->Quizzes)
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My own personal play in games against Gammonlab on www.gammonlab.com
I verified all of the solutions using Gammonlab. For reasons explained in the beginning of this web page, some solutions presented prior to the 1990s cannot be trusted. For those problems where disagreement is found, I list both solutions (original and Gammonlab’s) on the back of the flashcard.
Method of review
I keep all my flashcards in a metal index card file. I have a special thick card covered with tape to denote the “end of a pass”.
I move a subset of about 100 of my cards to a plastic container for convenient review at otherwise idle times. As I review the cards, if I get one wrong, I write the “pass number” on the back of the card. When I’m through with the plastic container pile I move the ones I got right to behind the thick card. This means that I won’t be reviewing them again until my next pass though all my cards. I’ll move the ones I got wrong to about 20% of the way deep into the cards I still have to review for the current pass. This approach ensures that I’ll see troublesome problems frequently as I make my way through numerous passes of my cards.
Near the end of a pass I’ll move the cards I got wrong to a special pile. I do this solely to count them. After counting them, I’ll move them to the beginning of the cards for the next pass – right behind the thick card.
I’m currently on my 18th pass through my flash cards. Although I now have 1300 flashcards, I only had around 100 when I began making passes through them. The best I’ve ever done is get 89% of the answers correct on a single pass.
The fact that I still get answers wrong underscores the difficulty of learning the subtler aspects of backgammon strategy. Two positions could differ only slightly yet demand different solutions. The only way to cope with such learning is by repetitive exposure. Flashcards offer the best means to facilitate such learning, and that’s why I have pursued it.
I would expect that few readers of this article will expend the time, energy, and cost (approximately $ 900 to make my 1300 flashcards) to make piles of flashcards. Nonetheless, flashcards are one of the main pillars of my backgammon education. They have helped me learn the more subtle aspects of the game and most importantly have helped convince me of how difficult backgammon is to master. If this article has helped the reader appreciate this last point, then a major goal has been attained.
Good luck!