Newsletter for 5 October 2004

Baseball playoffs start... October baseball lingers in the background as dice are rolled...

Tournament News

1st place:  Jason Lee
2nd place:  Adrian Costa
3rd place:  Bruce Haight

1st place:  Bruce Discher
2nd place:  Jon Vietor

Bruce Discher won the overflow tournament, his first tournament win at the BCSD. Congratulations, Bruce!

Current Master Points Standings

 1. Sho Sengoku      94
 2. Bruce Haight     81
 3. Jason Lee        77
 4. Adrian Costa     66
 5. Tom Fahland      65
 6. Fred Kamgar      38
 6. Osman Guner      38
 8. Eric Sedehi      29
 9. Henry Chaboki    25
10. Bruce Discher    18
10. Cyrus Mobedshahi 18
12. Mark Weiner      11
13. Marcia Karen      9
14. Ryan Knowles      8
14. Ned Cross         8
16. Kismet Hancer     6
16. Greg Kopp         6
18. Stan Krimerman    4
18. Vito Volpetti     4
20. Chris Rosin       3
21. Jon Vietor        2
22. Maira Costa       1
22. 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

Double Match Point. Pip counts: White 10, Black 16
Position ID: kwAAABkAAAAAAA Match ID: cAk1AAAAAAAA

Last Week's Problem of the Week

Match to 3, tied 0-0. Pip counts: White 152, Black 148
Position ID: 4HPDAQWGZ+JBIA Match ID: cIl4AAAAAAAA

There's nothing else to do but hit twice! 10/4* 6/5* should be automatic. Not doing so gives White an good chance to make an anchor or an otherwise useful point. Right now, White's position is not terribly strong, but it only takes one good roll for White to start putting something together. Two checkers on the bar is strong, and if White doesn't do something good, a cube is imminent.

When in doubt, hit. When still in doubt, hit twice.

#		Ply	Move	Equity
	1	4	10/4* 6/5*	+0.180
			0.529 0.199 0.006 - 0.471 0.141 0.007
			4-ply cubeful
	2	4	24/18 6/5*	+0.046 ( -0.134)
			0.506 0.139 0.003 - 0.494 0.119 0.003
			4-ply cubeful
	3	4	24/18 10/9	-0.052 ( -0.232)
			0.483 0.103 0.002 - 0.517 0.097 0.002
			4-ply cubeful
	4	4	24/23 10/4*	-0.150 ( -0.329)
			0.468 0.134 0.005 - 0.532 0.157 0.006
			4-ply cubeful
	5	4	10/4*/3	-0.156 ( -0.336)
			0.467 0.133 0.004 - 0.533 0.157 0.006
			4-ply cubeful

And the other problem:

Money Game. Pip counts: White 153, Black 153
Position ID: OGfkAQzGZvABJA Match ID: cIkaAAAAAAAA

22/11 is the right move for several reasons. First, Black gets better flexibility in his outfield. Also, Black does not wish to stack onto an already heavy midpoint. Finally, it will be harder for White to attack Black on the ace point, and remaining on the ace isn't significanly worse for escaping for Black.

#		Ply	Move	Equity
	1	R	22/11	-0.046
			0.501 0.101 0.004 - 0.499 0.135 0.004 -0.033 -0.046 0.000 0.000 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001
			Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.
			46656 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 1096646272 and quasi-random dice
			Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]
			Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]
	2	R	24/13	-0.093 ( -0.047)
			0.495 0.093 0.004 - 0.505 0.152 0.004 -0.069 -0.093 0.000 0.000 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001
			Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.
			46656 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 1096646272 and quasi-random dice
			Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]
			Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]
	3	4	13/8 13/7	-0.130 ( -0.084)
			0.472 0.146 0.005 - 0.528 0.171 0.008
			4-ply cubeful
	4	4	22/16 13/8	-0.133 ( -0.087)
			0.479 0.118 0.003 - 0.521 0.170 0.005
			4-ply cubeful
	5	4	24/18 13/8	-0.139 ( -0.092)
			0.482 0.129 0.005 - 0.518 0.184 0.006
			4-ply cubeful

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