Newsletter for 22 June 2004

Summer time!

On Tuesday, 22 June 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego met. A huge crowd demanded backgammon!

Tournament News

15 people entered two 16-player brackets on Tuesday night. We had the following tournament results:

Tournament #1 (16 player bracket)
  • 1st place:  Ned Cross

  • 2nd place:  Osman Guner

  • 3rd place:  Tom Fahland / Bruce Haight
    • Tournament #2 (16 player bracket)
  • 1st place:  Jason Lee

  • 2nd place:  Sho Sengoku

  • 3rd place:  Adrian Costa

    • We had the best turnout of the year. A total of 15 players were at the tournament. Ned Cross, visiting from the Puget Sound Backgammon Club, won the first tournament. With so many people in attendance, we opened a second bracket, which was won by Jason Lee.

    Also in attendance were two players of yore: Al Alexander and Don Bernstein.

    Current Master Points Standings 

     1. Sho Sengoku      58
 2. Jason Lee        53
 3. Bruce Haight     47
 4. Adrian Costa     41
 5. Osman Guner      33
 6. Tom Fahland      32
 7. Fred Kamgar      28
 8. Cyrus Mobedshahi 18
 9. Eric Sedehi      16
10. Henry Chaboki    12
11. Marcia Karen      9
12. Ned Cross         8
13. Greg Kopp         6
14. Vito Volpetti     4
15. Chris Rosin       3
15. Mark Weiner       3
17. Bruce Discher     2
17. Ryan Knowles      2
19. Maira Costa       1
19. Sam Mehri         1

    By winning the second tournament, Jason Lee has passed Bruce Haight to move into 2nd place overall, just five points behind Sho Sengoku. Ned Cross enters the master point list in 12th place, thanks to his victory in the first tournament. The other move was Osman Guner, who passed Tom Fahland into 5th place overall.

    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's a position from a BCSD tournament match between Bruce Haight (White) and Jason Lee (Black).

    +-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+
    |1X2X2X2X3X3X|   |1X ' ' ' '2O|
    |                   |   |                   |
    |                 | 1 |                 |
    | '1O3O3O3O3O|   |1X ' ' ' ' '|
    +--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

    7 point match, tied 0-0. Black on roll. Cube action? Pip counts: White 77, Black 82
    Position ID: bbsLgAC6uwMGAA Match ID: cAngAAAAAAAA

    Last Week's Problem of the Week

    Here's a problem sent in by Doyle Pritchard of the Imperial Valley Backgammon Club in El Centro.

    +-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+
    |2O ' ' ' '5X|   |2X3X '1X '3O|
    |                   |   |                   |
    |                 | 1 |       3 4       |
    |2X ' ' ' '5O|   | '4O ' '1O2X|
    +--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

    White leads 1-0 in a 3 point match. Pip counts: White 152, Black 160
    Position ID: 4NuJATDg88gBMA Match ID: cIlxAAAAAAAA

    This is no time for Black to be stepping up with his rear checkers. White has too many guns aimed at the 20 and 21 points, and is all too happy to bring all guns firing. But with that in mind, Black needs to do something to develop his offense.

    Slotting the five point is dangerous, but if White misses, Black is instantly a favorite to make that point and be in a position to develop more offense.

    # Ply Move Equity
      1 R 13/9 8/5 -0.216
     
    0.4040.1210.005-0.5960.2150.019 -0.367 -0.216
    0.0010.0010.000-0.0010.0010.000 0.004 0.005
    		  
      Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
      1296 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 972620864 and quasi-random dice  
      Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
      Cube: 2-ply cubeful 25% speed  
      2 R 24/21 24/20 -0.253 ( -0.037)
     
    0.4090.1050.005-0.5910.2260.011 -0.426 -0.253
    0.0010.0010.000-0.0010.0010.000 0.003 0.004
    		  
      Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
      1296 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 972620864 and quasi-random dice  
      Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
      Cube: 2-ply cubeful 25% speed  
      3 R 24/21 13/9 -0.257 ( -0.041)
     
    0.4030.1190.007-0.5970.2380.019 -0.426 -0.257
    0.0010.0010.000-0.0010.0010.000 0.004 0.005
    		  
      Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.  
      1296 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 972620864 and quasi-random dice  
      Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]  
      Cube: 2-ply cubeful 25% speed  
      4 4 24/21 8/4 -0.234 ( -0.018)
      0.415 0.118 0.006 - 0.585 0.241 0.017  
      4-ply cubeful  
      5 4 24/20 11/8 -0.242 ( -0.027)
      0.413 0.104 0.004 - 0.587 0.202 0.008  
      4-ply cubeful  

    Thanks for the problem, Doyle!

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

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