Newsletter for 14 December 2004

Tournament News

On Tuesday, 14 December 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego met. 10 players entered a 16-player tournament, with the following results:

Main Tournament (16 player bracket)
  • 1st place:  Bruce Haight and Sho Sengoku (split)

  • 3rd place:  Mozafar Behrooznia and Steve Blake (split)

    • Mozafar Behrooznia scored a master point for the first time by splitting 3rd place with Steve Blake.

    Sheldon Woytek played with the club for the first time.

    The holidays are approaching, but the club will NOT take any Tuesdays off. There will be tournaments on both the 21st and the 28th of December. If you're in town, please come on by and enter the tournament! Those will be your last two chances to win some points and make the 2004 Tournament of Champions. Eight points could be enough, which means if you show up and win a tournament, you will likely qualify for the TOC!

    Current Master Points Standings 

     1. Sho Sengoku      118
 2. Bruce Haight     101
 3. Jason Lee         97
 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        7
18. Kismet Hancer      6
18. 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
24. Mozafar Behrooznia 1
26. Maira Costa        1
    By earning six points, Sho Sengoku has essentially clinched the 2004 Player of the Year award. Bruce Haight is 17 points behind. Even if Bruce were to win two tournaments, he would still be a point behind.

    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

    It's desperation time. Your opponent has borne off fourteen checkers, but you hit the last checker and now seek a miraculous victory. It's tough, but not impossible. So how do you play the 4-4 in this position?

    This position arose in a 2nd round BCSD match on 14 December 2004 between Mozafar Behrooznia and Jason Lee. Jason was playing the Black checkers, Mozafar was playing White.

    +-24-23-22-21-20-19-+---+-18-17-16-15-14-13-+
    | ' ' ' ' ' '|   | ' ' ' ' '1O|
    |                   | 1X|                   |
    |                 | 1 |       4 4       |
    |2O2O2O2O3O3O|   | ' ' ' ' ' '|
    +--1--2--3--4--5--6-+---+--7--8--9-10-11-12-+

    Double match point. Pip counts: White 25, Black 66

    Last Week's 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-+
    | '2X '2X1X2X|   | '3X ' '1X2O|
    |                   |   |                   |
    |                 | 1 |                 |
    | ' '2O2O '3O|   |2X6O ' ' '2X|
    +--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

    It's definitely a good double, as any roll which clears the midpoint is a market loser. Black will have ample opportunity to clear that point, with many spares on the eight.

    White can still take this. White will very likely be able to assemble a very strong board in preparation for the day when Black might leave a shot.

    In the match, Black cubed. The Fish Factor took over, and Sax passed the cube.

    Cube decision
    Rollout cubeless equity +0.478(Money: +0.477)
    Cubeful equities:
    1.Double, take +0.959 
    2.Double, pass +1.000 +0.041
    3.No double +0.843 -0.116
    Proper cube action:Double, take
    Rollout details
     WinW gW bg LoseL gL bgCubelessCubeful
    Centered 1-cube0.7370.0190.001-0.2630.0160.000 +0.478 +0.843
    Standard error0.0010.0000.000-0.0010.0000.000 0.002 0.005
    Player White owns 2-cube0.7410.0190.001-0.2590.0160.000 +1.220 +0.959
    Standard error0.0010.0000.000-0.0010.0000.000 0.006 0.006
    Truncated cubeful rollout (depth 11) with var.redn.
    1296 games, Mersenne Twister dice gen. with seed 954737536 and quasi-random dice
    Play: 0-ply cubeful [expert]
    Cube: 2-ply cubeful 100% speed [world class]

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