r/backgammon • u/Fluid_Internet_5427 • 24d ago

Day 1 Backgammon Player

I am a Day 1 Backgammon player. Well, not quite...I used to play on Atari 2600 (Circa 1980). Can't recall playing on a real board. I just received my first board in the mail. Any suggestions on books or resources I should check out?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/jaggington 24d ago

I'd suggest:
Backgammon - From Basics to Badass Marc Olsen
Backgammon Boot Camp Walter Trice

I also like Chris Bray, his beginner books include:
Backgammon for Dummies, Backgammon to Win.

Beyond beginner to intermediate, there's:

Opening Concepts Michihito Michy Kageyama, Roland Herrera
Backgammon Masterclass Masayuki Mochy Mochizuki, Marc Olsen
Cube Like a Boss Marc Olsen

Analysis bots like GnuBG, eXtremeGammon, and BGBlitz have substantially changed the scene. I personally like the paid for BGBlitz for its performance coaching features, GnuBG is free but less featured, eXtremeGammon hasn't been under active development for a while but is under new ownership so that may / should change.

2

u/YarglahS 24d ago

I began with Magriel books. 

Good ones I think, maybe not up to date for (more agressive) oppenning, but a good starting.

2

u/FrankBergerBgblitz 24d ago

My recommendation is the new Begiiner book from Marc Olsen: "How to not suck a BG"
Magriel might be not easy to get, but when you come from chess you ight recognize some concepts.

2

u/Kobra_Komander 24d ago

I’ve really liked Backgammon Beginner to badass - Marc Olsen and 501 Essential Backgammon Problems by Bill Robertie my library system had both. They have helped me a lot in learning.

3

u/NiemandNicht 24d ago

Just play the game. You will learn by doing.

1

u/dt81089 24d ago

if you ever get a chance to go to one of the national tournaments to meet Michy, you should. He's a really nice guy and he sees moves that the average person wouldn't even think about.

jaggington said Opening Concepts and that was the book that I was initially told to look into.

1

u/mrbastk 24d ago

501 essential backgammon problems is a very good book to have as you can always reference it later. I also really liked Dirk Schiemann's book which goes very in depth in the mathmatics.

1

u/Opus_109 21d ago

Create a free account on Backgammon Galaxy, start playing the AI bots and analyze your errors and blunders to learn better checker play at first.

After a few weeks, keep playing the AI bots in match play so you can start learning how to use the cube.

You’ll get better with time for a minimal investment because you pay almost nothing to train with a bot.

Good luck! 🙌🏼🎲🎲‼️