A key idea in understanding the proper use of the doubling cube on a practical level is that of the “benchmark” position. A benchmark cube situation is a position where one of the decisions (doubling or taking) is a toss-up, while the other is completely clear. Properly understanding a benchmark position is very useful since it unlocks the key to many related positions. Just compare your actual position to the benchmark, spot what the relevant differences, and you should be able to make a good cube decision over the board.
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Making the 5-Point
Here are two early game positions where Black has not much and White has an inner point and some pressure.
Run or Anchor?
In Position 2, Black has a 6-2 to play. What’s the right idea here?
Black – Pips 160
Black to Play 6-2
Early game … which point to make?
How to Play Backgammon Chouettes – Part 2
Last time we talked about the history of backgammon chouettes and why they’re so popular. We also looked at three common situations that occur in chouettes and how they should be handled.
This time we’ll finish the discussion of chouette variations, and I’ll make some more recommendations about how chouettes should be structured and what rules work well in practice.
How to Play Backgammon Chouettes – Part 1
Back in the 1920s, backgammon went through its first great revival. After decades of stagnation, the game suddenly blossomed in popularity. Clubs were formed, books were written, and thousands of new people learned the game and started to play. It was a mini-version of the backgammon craze that started in the 1960s and 1970s.
Conventional wisdom holds that the source of the first backgammon boom was the invention of the doubling cube by some unknown New Yorker in the early 1920s. And indeed, it’s hard to imagine backgammon catching on in the modern world without the excitement of a bouncing cube ratcheting up the stakes. But there was another factor at work, at least as important as the doubling cube in making backgammon the gambling game of choice among the chic set of the Roaring Twenties: the invention of the chouette.
