Barclay Cooke and Jon Bradshaw
Written by a man named Barclay in the late 1970s, this book has to be good. Its core aim is to acquaint readers with the ancient game and modern techniques for being successful in tournament play. Its structure is mostly useful, beginning with the game's basic rules and proceeding through mid-game strategies and a discussion of probability to end with notes on players' psychology and three example games. The book's purpose is clear and its terminology clearly explained at the beginning, but as the strategies become more complex and cunning they become cloaked in increasingly elegant and silly language, which is unfortunately inversely proportional to the amount of understanding conveyed to the average reader (that is to say, an aspiring backgammon great). The book's main, but hilarious, problem is that it takes itself and the game far too seriously, which makes it somewhat useless for any casual player but absolutely hilarious for a reader who sticks around until the end and who may, despite the book's lack of clarity and overall vision, may pick up a few useful backgammon tips to spring on unsuspecting friends.
Cooke and Bradshaw pull no punches and cut directly to the chase: backgammon is not a game. No, far from it. Backgammon is war. The authors proceed to stretch out this tired and hyperbolic metaphor so far beyond acceptable usage that it becomes actually delightful how serious the enterprise actually is. Each chapter begins with a quotation from Karl von Clausewitz (I kid you not) dealing with war and related to that unit's focus within the game. Hyperbole and grandstanding aside, the book's introduction to the basic rules of backgammon is the best I've come across and should be repeated faithfully when explaining the game to a new player. Likewise, the following chapter outlines favorable opening rolls and what one should do with them with a good amount of reasoned explanation although the authors get a bit haughty. The text goes downhill (uphill?) from there as the authors pass harsh judgement on those who would dare(!) to play certain moves differently from the way they suggest. All of this commentary is not entirely unwelcome, and at least they are confident, but their plan and tactics are presented without an overarching sense of what one can hope to achieve. Of course a lot of the strategy is determined by the dice on the fly, backgammon being a game of luck as well as skill, but Cooke and Bradshaw offer no sense of any general game plan other than to note that their enigmatic tactics change as the game progresses. This information would be more useful given a sort of unifying theory of the game, but none is to be found and individual moves, while making sense in their own contexts, are hard to relate to in-game situations that should arise.
Over-complicating a book meant as a guide to the ordinary beginner, the authors dive in far too deeply far too quickly without much in the way of concrete explanation. The diagrams are helpful but far too often occur much earlier or later than the text accompaniment; this is a problem of editing and layout but it is exasperating nonetheless. While it is amusing to hear the authors talk of "horror rolls", which is actually quite accurate, it is easily apparent that they take themselves and their task a little too seriously to be actually useful. Discussion of the doubling cube is confusing and overly didactic and is indicative of the problems with the text as a whole. Its elementary discussion is excellent but the authors soon get too full of themselves and create a laughably serious text that undermines their point. I've no doubt that backgammon is a serious game of considerable depth and complexity, but this guide spends too much time and effort dwelling on that assertion and not enough explaining the intricacies of the game and the theories on which they depend, making backgammon seem serious and boring when in fact it is quite interesting and fun.
Grade: C+
Cooke and Bradshaw pull no punches and cut directly to the chase: backgammon is not a game. No, far from it. Backgammon is war. The authors proceed to stretch out this tired and hyperbolic metaphor so far beyond acceptable usage that it becomes actually delightful how serious the enterprise actually is. Each chapter begins with a quotation from Karl von Clausewitz (I kid you not) dealing with war and related to that unit's focus within the game. Hyperbole and grandstanding aside, the book's introduction to the basic rules of backgammon is the best I've come across and should be repeated faithfully when explaining the game to a new player. Likewise, the following chapter outlines favorable opening rolls and what one should do with them with a good amount of reasoned explanation although the authors get a bit haughty. The text goes downhill (uphill?) from there as the authors pass harsh judgement on those who would dare(!) to play certain moves differently from the way they suggest. All of this commentary is not entirely unwelcome, and at least they are confident, but their plan and tactics are presented without an overarching sense of what one can hope to achieve. Of course a lot of the strategy is determined by the dice on the fly, backgammon being a game of luck as well as skill, but Cooke and Bradshaw offer no sense of any general game plan other than to note that their enigmatic tactics change as the game progresses. This information would be more useful given a sort of unifying theory of the game, but none is to be found and individual moves, while making sense in their own contexts, are hard to relate to in-game situations that should arise.
Over-complicating a book meant as a guide to the ordinary beginner, the authors dive in far too deeply far too quickly without much in the way of concrete explanation. The diagrams are helpful but far too often occur much earlier or later than the text accompaniment; this is a problem of editing and layout but it is exasperating nonetheless. While it is amusing to hear the authors talk of "horror rolls", which is actually quite accurate, it is easily apparent that they take themselves and their task a little too seriously to be actually useful. Discussion of the doubling cube is confusing and overly didactic and is indicative of the problems with the text as a whole. Its elementary discussion is excellent but the authors soon get too full of themselves and create a laughably serious text that undermines their point. I've no doubt that backgammon is a serious game of considerable depth and complexity, but this guide spends too much time and effort dwelling on that assertion and not enough explaining the intricacies of the game and the theories on which they depend, making backgammon seem serious and boring when in fact it is quite interesting and fun.
Grade: C+
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