I've been playing BG for 5 or 6 years, completed hundreds of games. I must be an expert, I'm a bright enough bloke and look at all that experience! So why isn't that reflected in elo ratings, and why was I beaten black and blue the first time I entered a tournament here?
A bit of research on the interweb (they have that on computers now!) put me straight, proved to me that I knew nothing, have faulty thinking and mild delusions of grandeur. Time to act! so bought a couple of books (including one by that nice Mr Magriel) which are fascinating and prove exactly how much I don't know!
Here's the question. I've discovered that there are software tutors/simulators/assessors with various interesting names that cost a reasonably large amount of money and also a free open source applications called GNUBG. These are really handy for learning new stuff and having somebody to play whilst I'm waiting on the next PM tournaments to start.
OK, this really is the question. Is using GNUBG to play against and analyse games and such going to get me into bad habits compared with using Snowie or Jellyfish? I am really interested to learn this game in a lot more depth but would be grateful for comments from anybody who has used the named applications as to whether they are worth the outlay.
Also, now that I have come out as a BG buffoon, would you guys not punish me quite so badly in games. Thanks.
what books did you get? i would suggest magriels backgammon to start with this caveat. some of the positions and plays he suggests in the book have been shown to be incorrect by gnu and snowie. however it remains an invaluable book to help grasp the basic concepts. the chapter on playing safe vs playing bold is worth the price of the book for that alone. another good one is walter trice's backgammon bootcamp.
the next thing i would do is download gnu. snowie is good but for $400 i can think of other things to use the money for and gnu is just as strong if not a stronger player. once you have downloaded read the following tutorial:
http://www.gammonlife.com/gnu/index.htm
also i would suggest the following: playing against the computer while its in the tutor mode. that way when you are about to make a move that is doubtful or worse it will alert you and hopefully you can figure out what you are doing wrong. its unfortunate that you cant save the matches here as a .mat file. that would make it very easy to analyze but there are other sites that allow you to do that (private message me and i will suggest a few others) but you really need to look at all your matches and see what mistakes you are making.
Thanks Daniel, I'll have a look out for Walter Trice.
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