Hi all -

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to backgammon. I saw this position in a game I played against gnu and I don't really understand what's going on-



GNU is white in this money game, I guess he wants to create the best possible bear off formation with his double threes, but closing out the home with 7/1*(2) is given as the 4th best move. Can he really be that afraid of 66 then 66 or what am I missing -

Both 4-ply and 2-ply analysis on Gnu shows that 7/1*(2) is way better than any other move.

Probably just an anomaly with the 3-ply analysis that you are using.

You're not missing anything. 7/1*(2) is clearly the right play. White can't maneuver to pick up a second checker, so he should just close his board. After that he has the maximum amount of time and flexibility to arrange his last three checkers in the best possible way.

After closing the board, you'll want to get the last three checkers to the 4, 5, and 6-points to start the bearoff. Avoiding blotting on 6-6 is actually a low priority in this position, because you're so far behind. Pay attention to that only if all other factors are equal. If getting hit were the only way you could lose, then making sure that 6-6 played safely would be a much higher priority.

The best backgammon software right now is Extreme Gammon version 2 (XG2 for short), which at $80 is an incredible bargain. If you get seriously interested in backgammon, you'd be well advised to download a copy. (Incidentally, XG2 easily gets this problem right.) GNU is free, but sometimes it's worth paying a little money for the best.

I have to agree with Robertie on Extreme Gammon 2. I bought it a while back, and it is way better than Gnu.

The feature which I find extremely useful is the Teaching Mode, where XG analyses each move after you have played it in much greater depth than GNU, but does not let you change your move like the tutor mode in GNU. It just reports back on how you are doing and analyses in depth how you have played the last move.

It also gives a detailed analysis of how your checker play and cube play (seperately) have improved over time and gives a clear indication of what your weaknesses are.

I paid the money for XG, and would do it again in a heartbeat. It's features and analysis are just so much better than GNU.
And much, MUCH faster in its analysis.

+100000 XG is the best deal ever!!

XG is a must-have for serious players. Its level of play, user interface, and feature set make it the best backgammon program in the world.

That said, I like and use GnuBg quite frequently. For one thing, I only have a single-computer license for XG, so GnuBg is installed on my other computer. In addition, I often play practice games against GnuBg while XG is running rollouts for me. I know that I could open a second instance of XG, and play against it, but I have discovered that my system is more responsive when I use GnuBg.

GnuBg does not have much to apologize for. It is a fantastic program that is second only to XG. The level of play GnuBg offers in version 1.xx compares favorably with XG2. For over a year, I have been running truncated GnuBg rollouts of every position where I make a full rollout in XG. In almost all cases, the two programs agree. Michael Depreli, Michael Petch, and others have been working to update the Depreli study, so a more precise comparison should be out this year.

For me, the single biggest difference between XG and GnuBg is not the level of play. It is speed. XG runs circles around GnuBg. Its evals and rollouts take less than half as much time as GnuBg. A secondary issue is the sometimes kludgy interface in GnuBg. For instance, GnuBg does not have standard Save and Save-As commands. Instead, every save is treated as a save-as, and GnuBg prompts you for a file name and permission to overwrite every time you save. This sort of stuff is pretty silly, but it’s not a fatal flaw.

Many beginners and intermediate players will find that GnuBg is the right choice for them. Given $80 to spend, they will probably want to buy a decent board before they purchase XG. Buying a couple of good backgammon books will also be a budget priority. For $80, GnuBg plus books is probably better than XG alone for a player who has neither.

Mike

Thanks all - seems like XG is a no brainer.

If you set Gnu Analysis to 4-Ply you get the same suggestion that XG made. At least in that position. To also have Gnu play at 4-Ply, you would have to change the Player setting too. The slowdown as not intolerable on my Intel i5 4200u computer. But it takes away some of the fun.

I agree with the advice to get XG. But there are some features in Gnu I wish XG had.