How to use eXtreme Gammon as an Effective
Learning Tool
(A Guide for Beginners and Intermediates)
By Phil Simborg
That was 26 years ago, and for the last 26 years I have constantly worked on
improving my game, and though I am a respected player and teacher, I still have
much room for improvement. But something very exciting
happened to me about 3 years ago—I discovered eXtreme Gammon and finally had
backgammon software that I could rely on for the right answers in a relatively
short period of time. Prior to eXtreme Gammon I was often
given the wrong information from computer programs, and to get reasonably good
information took quite a long time to complete lengthy rollouts.
So now that we finally have a program that we can rely on, it would be a shame
not to use it or not to use it properly. Unfortunately, even
many people who have purchased the software are not using it fully or properly
to help improve their game.
There are so many ways to use XG and so many areas that provide excellent
information, it is well worth the time for any new user to read the help section
and go through the index to learn the definition of terms. I
know, again from personal experience, that most people don’t like to take the
time to do this, so I will give you some ideas that should help you get started
and on the right track.
There are five basic ways I use eXtreme Gammon to help my game:
1) I
put specific positions into the program and analyze them to see what is the best
checker play or cube decision;
2) I
play games or matches against eXtreme Gammon and have the program alert me when
I make an error, and then I study the error to find out what the best play is
and why;
3) I
play games and matches against friends on eXtreme Gammon and we either study all
of our errors, or we set the program NOT to show the errors but we bet on each
move to see who is right and then look at the answer;
4) I
import games that I play on various web sites and see how I played and study my
mistakes;
5) I
use the “profile” section to see what areas of my game are most in
need of further work and study as well as to check my progress.
In other articles, I will go into much more detail about specifically how I do
each of the 5 things mentioned above, but I also want you to know that in
addition to the above areas, there are many other learning tools in eXtreme
Gammon that you can use to gain tremendous insights into this complex game.
For example, if you click on the “analyze” tab at the top of the page you
will see several options.
Starting from the top the first four choices allow you to do cube and checker
analysis of the current position on the board, and the next two items allow you
to set the level of analysis depending on just how thorough and detailed you
want your information to be. Of course, the more accurate the
better, but accuracy does take more time. I generally set the
level to “thorough” as I find it “extremely” accurate in a relatively short
period of time. If there is a specific position that really
interests me, I often go back and analyze just that position using XGRoller + or
even ++.
The next tab down is called “dice distribution.” This
is an amazing tool which tells me, very quickly, how the player on roll would
play every possible roll, how good or bad each roll is, and what his equity
(winning percentages) is after each roll if played properly.
You can even extend this option to show every possible roll that your opponent
could roll on the next roll in response and what the resulting equity would be.
This tool is particularly helpful in providing an understanding of
“market losers,” and it helps you better understand the strength or weakness of
a given position. By the way, a “market loser” is a sequence
of your next roll and his next roll that would turn a position from a take to a
drop. The major reason I would double my opponent, even
though I believe he would take, is if I have too many market losers.
(How many is too many depends on the score and the specific position.)
The next tab down is “race formulas” and this applies primarily to positions
where there is little or no chance of future contact…all of my checkers are past
all of my opponent’s checkers. As you will see, there are
several approaches that can be applied including: pip count,
Trice, Thorp, Keith, and EPC. Each of these methods, or a
combination of them, can be used to estimate winning chances in a race to a very
high degree of accuracy. If you truly want to excel at
backgammon, you must understand the pip count, as that is the basis for all
formulas, and I recommend Trice and Keith for most intermediate players.
The way to change to the “away score” is to right click on the score and select
“Show Away Score.”
In our example above, if I am leading 4away to 5away, according to the match
equity table, my odds of winning the match are 57.73 percent.
Knowing the match equity helps us understand how the use of the doubling
cube changes at various match scores and we can use our match equity to
calculate or estimate or “take points” and “gammon values” at any match score.
It is important to know that at some scores we will give the cube much
sooner or much later depending on our opponent’s take points and gammon risks,
and if we are getting the cube, our decision to take or pass also changes with
the score.
I use the “cube information” tab quite a bit as this tab tells me
the actual take points for any score as well as the value of gammons at each
score. I prefer to check the “non gammon-adjusted” box
as that gives me the basic information for every score without consideration for
the specific position shown.
In other articles, I will go into more detail about my favorite settings, how to
set up positions to analyze and how I analyze them, how to play against the
program for practice, and importing games from various on-line game sites.
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The
next tab is the Match Equity table, and this table tells you what your odds are
of winning the match at various scores.
