Newsletter for 7 December 2004

Tournament News

On Tuesday, 7 December 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego met. 14 players entered a 16-player tournament and an 8-player overflow tournament, with the following results:

Main Tournament (16 player bracket)

1st place:  Tom Fahland and Sho Sengoku (split)
3rd place:  Bruce Discher

Overflow Tournament (8 player bracket)

1st place:  Eric Sedehi
2nd place:  Jason Lee

The club welcomed John Sabin and Fred Sorour.

Update from the 1st California State Championship

The 1st California State Championship (54th Gammon Associates Invitational) was held over the weekend of December 3-5, 2004. Five BCSD players entered: Adrian Costa, Tom Fahland, Jason Lee, Sho Sengoku, and Jon Vietor. Adrian and Tom entered the Advanced division, while Jason, Sho, and Jon entered the Open. In addition, Sho and Jon entered the Super-32, which started on Friday.

Jason made it as far as the semifinals of the Open Consolation, but lost to Steve Sax. Adrian qualified for two Quickies finals spots, but lost in the first round of the finals in both. Jason, Sho, and Jon all played doubles -- Jason's team lost to Sho's team in the first round... and Sho's team wound up winning the doubles tournament. Congratulations, Sho!

As this was the first California State Championship, an honorary title holder was needed. Before the Calcutta auction, Jon Vietor was crowned as the honorary reigning California champion by the Calcutta emcee, Ray Fogerlund. Vietor was unseated as champ by Jona Alexander.

Current Master Points Standings

 1. Sho Sengoku     112
 2. Jason Lee        97
 3. Bruce Haight     95
 4. Tom Fahland      85
 5. Adrian Costa     66
 6. Fred Kamgar      50
 6. Osman Guner      50
 8. Eric Sedehi      38
 9. Henry Chaboki    26
10. Bruce Discher    23
11. Mark Weiner      21
12. Cyrus Mobedshahi 18
13. Marcia Karen      9
14. Stan Krimerman    8
14. Ryan Knowles      8
14. Ned Cross         8
17. Steve Blake       6
17. Kismet Hancer     6
17. Greg Kopp         6
20. Alan Epstein      4
20. Sam Mehri         4
20. Vito Volpetti     4
23. Chris Rosin       3
24. George Alessi     2
24. Jon Vietor        2
26. Maira Costa       1

Sho is close to uncatchable... there are only three tournaments left in 2004, and he has a 15 point lead. Only Bruce Haight and Jason Lee have a chance.

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

A position from the semifinals of the Open Consolation of the 1st California State Championship from Van Nuys over the weekend of December 3-5, 2004. Steve Sax is White and Jason Lee is Black.

+-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+

| |

| | | |

| 1 |

| |

+--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

Black leads 6-5 in a match to 9. Black on roll. Cube action?
Pip counts: White 126, Black 106
Position ID: Zs2RwQBszg8GAA Match ID: cAkgAWAAOAAA

Last Week's Problem of the Week

+-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+

+--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

Money game. Pip counts: White 126, Black 57
Position ID: bN4OAGDb7g4AAA Match ID: QQkRAAAAAAAA

There are three reasonable plays: the two completely safe plays of 6/4 5/1 and 6/2 5/3, and the unsafe play of 6/o, which leaves a shot to either 5-5 or 6-6.

Between the two safe plays, 6/2 5/3 is better because it has a better distribution -- 6/4 5/1 stacks two checkers on the four point.

So the question comes down to deciding between playing safely and taking a checker off. What's good about taking a checker off? First the obvious: it takes a checker off -- that gets closer to the gammon, and aside from the extra losing chances for giving up a possible shot, it also gets us closer to bearing off.

This position came up during a strategy session at the club, and Sho Sengoku pointed out that spares on the five point are important. For the purposes of going for the gammon, having spares on the five point mean that Black can play fives without breaking a point, thereby keeping White on the bar longer. To the end of going for a gammon, this is important.

Remember, just because you have two numbers which blot still means White has to hit. The parlay is 2/36 to blot and 11/36 to get hit. That's 22/1296, which is a 1 out of 59 proposition -- at least for the following sequence. GNU is willing to take the risk and leave the shot numbers for a better distribution and better gammon chances:

# Ply Move Equity

1 R 6/off +1.682

0.960 0.763 0.013 - 0.040 0.000 0.000 +1.696 +1.682

0.000 0.000 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.

46656 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 949915840 and quasi-random dice

Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

2 R 6/2 5/3 +1.656 ( -0.025)

0.968 0.722 0.009 - 0.032 0.000 0.000 +1.668 +1.656

0.000 0.000 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.

46656 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 949915840 and quasi-random dice

Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

3 R 6/4 5/1 +1.644 ( -0.038)

0.969 0.707 0.008 - 0.031 0.000 0.000 +1.655 +1.644

0.000 0.000 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.

46656 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 949915840 and quasi-random dice

Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

Cube: 0-ply cubeful [expert]

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