Newsletter for 6 January 2004

Happy New Year!

On Tuesday, 6 January 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego held it's first meeting of the year. Some discussion was made about setting tournament formats and master point formats, and quite a lot of progress was made.

Tournament News

The turnout was low, but that didn't stop a tournament from running. Five people entered, and here are the big winners:

Current Master Points Standings

With her win in the tournament, Marcia takes the early lead in the Master Points race: 

1. Marcia Karen      8
2. Adrian Costa      4
3. Fred Kamgar       1
3. Sam ?             1
Remember that the point leader at the end of the year will be named the BCSD Player of the Year, and the top 16 in the Point Race will be invited to the 2004 BCSD Tournament of Champions, to be held in early 2005.

Problems of the Week

Here's an interesting position that came up in a choutette:

+-13-14-15-16-17-18-+---+-19-20-21-22-23-24-+
|2O2X ' ' ' '1O1O ' '1O '|
|   |
|      |  55  |
| ' ' ' '2O3O|   |2O2O '1O ' '|
+-12-11-10--9--8--7-+---+--6--5--4--3--2--1-+

Pip counts: White 4, Black 165

Do you run and give up the gammon, or do you hang out and try to get a shot to save the gammon, but at the risk of a backgammon?

Now, what if we change the situation just a little bit:

+-13-14-15-16-17-18-+---+-19-20-21-22-23-24-+
|2O3X ' ' ' '1O1O ' '1O '|
|   |
|      |  55  |
| ' ' ' '2O3O|   |2O2O '1O ' '|
+-12-11-10--9--8--7-+---+--6--5--4--3--2--1-+

Pip counts: White 6, Black 165

Does the extra checker for White make any difference to you? Check back next week and we'll do an analysis.

See you next week! Keep tossing those cubes,
J. Lee