Newsletter for 27 April 2004

And so we bid a fond farewell to April!

On Tuesday, 27 April 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego met. A tournament was in the works.

Tournament News

11 people entered a 16-player bracket on Tuesday night. We had the following tournament results: Once again, we seriously considered opening a second 16-player bracket, but the feeling is that a minimum of 12 players present is necessary to do this. For the third week in a row, we fell just short of that mark. The BCSD has had exactly 11 people show up for three straight weeks!

No blitzes were held this week, and we continue to encourage people who have been eliminated after buy-backs are gone to enter a blitz!

Finally, we welcomed a new player to the mix, one Mr. Vito Volpetti. Welcome to the BCSD, Vito!

Player of the Month for April 2004

We'll fill in a new feature here at the end of each month by proclaiming the top point getter each month as the Player of the Month. There's no prize for winning the Player of the Month except a hearty pat on the back and the eternal admiration of your peers.

Adrian Costa is the BCSD Player of the Month for April 2004. We had four tournaments in April, and Adrian took second place on 13 April and and first place on 27 April for 12 points total. He edged out Henry Chaboki, who had 10 points. Congratulations, Adrian!

Although we didn't mention them before, here are the top point getters for each month this year:

Current Master Points Standings

Adrian stormed past Bruce Haight and has made the race for the top spot closer than it's been since January. Adrian is just two points behind Jason Lee for first place overall. Bruce is still within striking distance at seven points back. Osman's 2nd place finish this week moved him into 5th place overall. 

 1. Jason Lee        39
 2. Adrian Costa     37
 3. Bruce Haight     32
 4. Tom Fahland      26
 5. Osman Guner      21
 6. Cyrus Mobedshahi 18
 7. Fred Kamgar      17
 8. Sho Sengoku      14
 9. Henry Chaboki    10
10. Marcia Karen      9
11. Eric Sedehi       8
12. Mark Weiner       3
13. Ryan Knowles      2
13. Chris Rosin       2
13. Greg Kopp         2
16. Maira Costa       1
16. Sam Mehri         1
The point leader at the end of the year will be named the BCSD Player of the Year, and the top 16 in the Master Point standings will be invited to the 2004 BCSD Tournament of Champions, to be held in early 2005.

Problem of the Week

Here is a position from a match in the Open Main Division of the Spring 2004 FIBS Tournament.

+-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+
|1O2X4X '2X2X|   |3X ' '1O1O '|
|                   | 1X|                   |
|                 |   |       5 5       |
|1X2O3O2O2O3O| 2 | ' ' ' ' ' '|
+--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

Black leads 7-6 in a 9 point match. Pip counts: White 108, Black 102
Position ID: 9mwHAFB22wEKIA Match ID: UYk2AWAAOAAA

How would you feel about the position if we changed it by moving the White checker on the bar to the 18 point, resulting in this position:

+-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+
|1O2X4X '2X2X|   |4X ' '1O1O '|
|                   |   |                   |
|                 |   |       5 5       |
|1X2O3O2O2O3O| 2 | ' ' ' ' ' '|
+--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

Black leads 7-6 in a 9 point match. Pip counts: White 90, Black 102
Position ID: 9mwPACB22wEKIA Match ID: UYk2AWAAOAAA

Last Week's Problem of the Week

From an early heads-up game on Tuesday. Making the 5 point jumps out as an obvious contender, as do the moves that button up the blot under attack.

+-13-14-15-16-17-18-+---+-19-20-21-22-23-24-+
|3O1O1X '3X '|   |2X2X2X ' ' '|
|                   |   |                   |
|                 | 1 |       1 3       |
|3X '1O '3O2O|   |5O ' ' ' '2X|
+-12-11-10--9--8--7-+---+--6--5--4--3--2--1-+

Money game. Pip counts: White 151, Black 131
Position ID: 2ObEATDg24kLAA Match ID: cIkMAAAAAAAA

Black's blot is in danger of getting hit and primed out. Because Black doesn't have much of a prime going himself, it's paramount to safety the blot.

# Ply Move Equity
  1 R 14/13 10/7 +0.761
 
0.7090.0960.003-0.2910.0380.001 +0.478 +0.761
0.0000.0000.000-0.0000.0000.000 0.000 0.001
  
  Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
  46655 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 967655872 and quasi-random dice  
  Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
  Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
  2 R 14/10 +0.718 ( -0.043)
 
0.7020.1040.003-0.2980.0450.001 +0.464 +0.718
0.0000.0000.000-0.0000.0000.000 0.000 0.001
  
  Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
  46655 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 967655872 and quasi-random dice  
  Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
  Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
  3 R 8/5 6/5 +0.645 ( -0.116)
 
0.6740.1260.006-0.3260.0800.002 +0.397 +0.645
0.0000.0000.000-0.0000.0000.000 0.000 0.001
  
  Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
  46655 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 967655872 and quasi-random dice  
  Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
  Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  

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

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