Newsletter for 17 August 2004

Why Isn't Backgammon An Olympic Sport?

Tournament News

Gold Medal:    Bruce Haight / Kismet Hancer (split)
Bronze Medal:  Sho Sengoku

Gold Medal:    Adrian Costa / Jason Lee (split)

We want to welcome Kismet Hancer to the club -- she has played backgammon before in Michigan, and expects to come play more. She had a fabulous debut -- she lost her first match, but then reentered and stormed all the way to the finals, beating Osman Guner, Fred Kamgar, and then Mark Weiner, only to split with Bruce Haight to finish off her night.

Current Master Points Standings

 1. Sho Sengoku      84
 2. Bruce Haight     62
 3. Jason Lee        60
 4. Adrian Costa     49
 4. Tom Fahland      49
 6. Osman Guner      37
 7. Fred Kamgar      35
 8. Eric Sedehi      25
 9. Cyrus Mobedshahi 18
10. Henry Chaboki    12
11. Bruce Discher    10
12. Mark Weiner       9
12. Marcia Karen      9
14. Ryan Knowles      8
14. Ned Cross         8
16. Kismet Hancer     6
16. Greg Kopp         6
18. Vito Volpetti     4
19. Chris Rosin       3
20. Maira Costa       1
20. Sam Mehri         1

Bruce Haight passed Jason Lee to take over 2nd place, but trails Sho Sengoku by 22 points. Adrian Costa has moved into a 4th place tie with Tom Fahland. With her solid performance in her first tournament, Kismet Hancer has moved straight into the Top 16 into a 16th place tie with Greg Kopp.

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

Black leads 3-1 in a match to 7. Pip counts: White 116, Black 113
Position ID: i9sGGBBstw0ABg Match ID: UQngABAAGAAA

Last Week's Problem of the Week

Match to 11, tied 0-0. Black on roll. Pip counts: White 104, Black 123
Position ID: u82AAQxwbwcDAg Match ID: cAlgAQAAAAAA

It's absolutely criminal to pass this. White has way too much going for him. A 5-point board and a great racing lead.

As to why this position is not a double, the reason is probably that the volatility isn't quite high enough -- there's not much that Black can do to lose his market. That racing lead is going to keep White in the game for a while -- Black needs more improvements -- perhaps hope that White's board crumbles and that he can squeeze White off the anchor. But for now, it's not enough.

Cube decision
Rollout cubeless equity		+0.382	(Money: +0.382)
Cubeful equities:
1.	No double	+0.620
2.	Double, pass	+1.000	+0.380
3.	Double, take	+0.579	-0.041
Proper cube action:		No double, take (9.8%)
Rollout details
Win W g W bg   Lose L g L bg Cubeless Cubeful Centered 1-cube 0.659 0.123 0.003 - 0.341 0.060 0.001 +0.382 +0.620 Standard error 0.001 0.001 0.000 - 0.001 0.001 0.000 0.003 0.005 Player JLee owns 2-cube 0.663 0.130 0.003 - 0.337 0.059 0.001 +0.799 +0.579 Standard error 0.001 0.001 0.000 - 0.001 0.001 0.000 0.005 0.006
Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 7) with var.redn.
1296 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 1092052352 and quasi-random dice
Play: 2-ply cubeful 50% speed
keep the first 0 0-ply moves and up to 8 more moves within equity 0.16
Skip pruning for 1-ply moves.
Cube: 2-ply cubeful 33% speed

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