Problem of the Week #83: November 8 - Page 2 - Backgammon Forum - Discuss Backgammon Strategy, Clubs and Books

Do you know if this is by any chance named after the fact that many Eastern Europeans play backgammon with single blots counting as points, thus making primes possible with only six checkers?

All the Polish and Russians seem to play a straight race form of the game with no hitting whatsoever whenever I watch them play (you can only get ahead in the race by priming and forcing players to be unable to move - no hitting possible).

It's called narde, afaik it has multiple winning strategies not unlike in poker and tougher to master than backgammon.

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11-12-2010 , 08:27 AM

#27

Wamy Einehouse

rack 'em

Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 4,653

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha Fish

It's called narde, afaik it has multiple winning strategies not unlike in poker and tougher to master than backgammon.

I can't believe narde is tougher to master than backgammon - a very large percentage of moves are forced throughout the game due to not being allowed to land on any occupied point, and removing hitting takes away so much possible strategy and complexity.

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11-12-2010 , 01:52 PM

#28

Alpha Fish

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3,832

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wamy Einehouse

I'm only repeating what was relayed to me by someone who spent several years working on backgammon and chess bots, he said that it's much tougher to create a narde bot.

From what I understand, almost every game between two strong players evolves into a sort of a backgame and a better player seems to win 2-3 times as often as he would playing backgammon.

Not sure if it indicates a more complex game though or if it's just that a gap between very top and good players in narde is wider than in backgammon.