Has anyone read the Masterclass book by Mochy? It would be nice to learn from arguably the best player, but have purchased other books published by Backgammon Galaxy and was extremely frustrated with lack of editorial quality, poor writing, terrible printing/binding, etc.

I bought a copy. I haven’t read it cover-to-cover yet, but I’ve read most of it and have some general impressions:

1) Mochy’s chapters (strategic visualization and backgames) are worth reading. Strategic visualization is Mochy’s name for deciding whether you and your opponent have priming or blitzing positions and acting accordingly (i.e., if you’re behind in the race and have decent priming chances you probably don’t want to touch your back checkers). The backgames chapter doesn’t introduce any really new ideas compared to other books, but it’s a well written overview of the major concepts (don’t hit and improve opponent’s timing, you can often slot aggressively hoping to get hit, etc).

2) Marc’s chapters were disappointing IMO, and mostly just rehash concepts that have already been described in many other books. One chapter gives examples of features that should look good vs. bad in different game types (priming, blitzing, contact/holding, etc). The other chapter is about cube action in what Marc calls “undefined positions”, which refers to positions with significant contact that can’t easily be compared to reference positions. He describes the “Olsen point system” (rebranded position/race/threat), lists things like Woolsey's Law, O'Hagan's law, etc, which is fine but nothing new. Marc introduces the concept of "too good to double" about 300 pages into the "Master Class".

3) The copy editing is much better than other Galaxy books (which I have also been disappointed with).

4) Overall, it’s a nicely printed book, and may be worth getting based on the combination of Mochy's chapters + collector value, but if you’re already an advanced/expert level player I wouldn’t expect to get much valuable backgammon advice from the book.

Is that "Olsen point system" exactly the same as PRAT (1 point for position, 1 point for race, 1 point for threat) or does it go into more detail (giving different points for different situations)?

IIRC the "Olsen point system" is just that you get 1 "point" each for having an advantage in blitzing/priming/racing, then 2 "points" + volatility = cube. Which is fine, and it's a good way to think about doubling.

It doesn't attempt to provide specific point scores for different types of common positions. I heard through a friend that David Presser has a system that does actually attempt to assign fractional point values to quantify position/race/threat more precisely (e.g., I'm making these numbers up, but maybe a 55 blitz is worth 0.8 blitz points, having the 4/5/6 points made vs an ace point anchor is worth 0.6 priming points, ... and you need 2 points to double or something) and David Presser is obviously a very strong player so I guess it can be done.

One of the sections in the "Olsen point system" chapter shows a position that's a small double (by around ~0.01 if I remember correctly) and Marc goes through how showing that the position has 2 points + volatility so the "Olsen point system" shows that it's a "clear double". But the problem is you could move almost any checker on the board one pip and it would no longer be a double, and I'm pretty sure the "Olsen point system" would still say it's a "clear double". This isn't a complaint about the system, more about the book -- I think the best backgammon books look at many variations of similar positions (Robertie's "How to the Play the Opening" series is excellent in this respect, and so are Woolsey's "Backgammon Encyclopedia" books), and I think without that the "Cube action in undefined positions" chapter comes across as Marc looking at the XG evaluation and then adjusting the "Olsen point system" scoring to match the results.

Very helpful, thank you. So it's not the "Oleson point system" that I need but rather the "David Presser point system". But I guess he hasn't published it yet in detail?

(I tried to construct something like that myself but run into problems because you can't change the racing without moving checkers around which creates hitting chances. It's difficult to find out what different parameters are worth when every modification changes different parameters at the same time.)

Again, that’s not what BGMC/the “Olsen Point System” claim to do, so I don’t want to hold them to that standard. I meant that more as an example of how most of the concepts described in the book are not new (which is fine, it’s still worth writing a new book about them — just may not be what everyone is looking for)

Does anybody know another book or internet page where something like that is attempted?

Same here ... the new book is an improvement in many ways - but the typesetting is still very much substandard. Many half empty pages and even the title on the front cover is not centered but sticks to the right margin. Self published backgammon books are both among the most pricy and the most crappy looking in my collection ...

You can say an awful lot of good things about Marc Olsen and his dedication to backgammon, but the fact that he has been publishing backgammon books since 2012 and still doesn't get this right is disappointing.

Maybe we haven't complained loud enough?

OMG. You guys make my day. Marc Olsen obviously screwed up his books like he screwed up the new Backgammon Galaxy's App. The guy is a big fail.

Could you please list your achievements for BG? I mean I would like to compare them to what you call a big fail.
Don't get me wrong, I don't play on galaxy, I think his books are good, but not overwhelming etc. and I think the pricing for some things in the Galaxy shop is a bit high, but on the other hand the professional presentation of matches and the UBC format alone are great achievements.

Can't wait to see what you provided for the BG community other than a crusade again Marc.

I'm not the only one complaining about the change. There is reasons why there is less people on the app than on the old site. The way they did the change (with the lack of communication by the Galaxy team) was very unprofessional and to have to wait 2 weeks to get a rating conversion is ridiculous and demonstrate the lack of foresight of the team and obviously the CEO should be held liable. Also, when you play, you can't choose your opponent anymore, neither the numbers of coins you want to put at stake. Also, the app was ridiculously slow this week, it is normal that people are unhappy. On one of his YouTube videos, Marc Olsen berate a guy because he has a basic avatar on the app. Mocking the people who don't buy your product is not the good way of doing business.

According to Olsen there are more people on Galaxy than before, I can't judge that. I have also the impression that the people that dislike the new platform are louder than the others.

Even I was aware on the change (and I don't play on Galaxy), maybe they should have used more channels to reach more people, but they have communicated.

From what I hear, I probably dislike like the new version, but Olsen is the one that gives the money and that gives him all the rights to try things to get income from his activities. When I read it correctly he pays 12 programmers and probably some more people. Do you have an idea how much this costs each month?
If you demand he should resign, are you willing to step in and put the money where your mouth is? I doubt.

My criticism is from the view of an old IT guy: the quality assurance is inadequat. I would be very curious to read their test strategy (I assume it's non existant), whether they do non functional testing, some more. But I wont speculate about the reasons for that, but the lack of QA is obvious.
I also dislike the prices in their shop that seems too high to me (e.g. it's not printing costs, see Vogl recent excellent book in comparison), but again, it's easy for me to complain, I don't have to pay people.

This is obviously untrue. There were more than 100K players on the old Galaxy. On the app, you can only see 3 pages of ongoing matches on the 'rating game' section right now. On the old site, you could saw 10 or 15 pages of ongoing matches every time of the day. Also, it take more time to start a match than on the old Galaxy. Then Olsen claim they are more players on the app. How do you explain that ? It is completely illogical. How people can believe Olsen on that one ?

you answered only part of my statements. If you request him to resign (BTW why do you feel to be legitimated to request that?) would you be willing to step in?

Asking for someone to resign his position does not mean that I have to take his place. What a ridiculous argument !! Also, you too answered only parts of my statement. What do you say about Marc Olsen berating a guy on one of his You Tube videos because the guy has a basic avatar on the app ? What excuse are you going to come up with to defend him ? You also don't answer the fact that there are only 4 pages of rating games compare to 10 to 15 before. This is not what I call more people playing. Just because Marc Olsen said so does not mean is it true. Georges Bush and Tony Blair said there were weapons of mass destruction on Iraq and history has proven that it was a lie. Don't take people words for the truth. What are your excuse for Marc lying about that ?

Because you should have an idea who should step in. In my country we have a saying: who pays the music says what is played. So Olsen is free to do whatever he wants and IMHO your request asking that Olson should resign is ridiculous.

Because, as I mentioned, I don't play on Galaxy. I don't have the slightest idea whats about basic avatars and others and I really don't care. My interest in avatars is lower than if in china a bycyle is tilting over.

I don't know Olsen personally, but I strongly assume he is not an idiot. I doubt he claims something that is so easy to falsify. But I don't play on Galaxy so I can't say anything based on facts.

Nevertheless I wont waste anymore of my time. Good luck on your crusade.

So, you are ok with businessmans lying to theirs customers and berating the people who don't buy theirs products ? I don't think it is the good way ta make business.

Good point, Frank. I think I can help out with some facts: Before the website was switched off, the app had about 4K coin games and matches every day and website had 13K matches every day. Now the app has about 25K coin games and matches. Why do I know this? 13K was mentioned by Marc Olsen on Facebook and the other numbers are my personal estimate. They are numbered consecutively, I assume ...

As for gab_gammons observation: Most people play coin games on the app. After some basic calculation taking into account average match lengths etc. I would assume people play about 20K coin games and onepointers and maybe 5K or 6K actual matches of 3 / 5 / 7 points. So, there you have your solution: People play more individual events but the actual time they spent on the site has probably gone down as has the number of tables ...

Btw, I'd rather go back to the original topic now ...

I play 7 points match at casual time control, and it take way much longer time than before to find an opponent

I am waiting since 10 minutes to start a match right now

I never waited more than 10 minutes to start a match on the old site