Backgammon Strategic Concepts

Has anyone had a look at “Backgammon: Strategic Concepts” by Francois Tardieu? It will be a bit before I read it myself but the forward was written by Sander Lylloff and it’s really nice and heartfelt. I look forward to reading the whole book.

1 Like

Yes! I love it. Good insight, thoughtfully organized, and beautiful to look at, which is always a bonus.

2 Likes

Yeah, it is one of the better (maybe even best) books I bought and read in 2023. For me it already has this ‘backgammon classics’ feeling. The problems are nice and are worth studying. I am also very positive about the editorial quality and actually like that the paper is thin making the book less bulky.

4 Likes

+1 from me.

I find all the problems challenging and the insights helpful. I have read it once and plan to go through it at least twice more :smile:

Besides the really good writing, I really like that Tardieu systematically goes though enumerated top choices (usually 4) for each problem and, in addition to explaining why a certain move is right, he also covers the other choices and explains why they are not. I find this helps reinforce the ideas behind each position.

3 Likes

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it and go back regularly and reread different sections. I also read Backgammon Masterclass this year. Both are hard back which I love. I believe these two books along with Michy’s trilogy will be my go-to books for a long time.

1 Like

I prefer hardbacks as well! This one in particular is put together quite nicely.

Another thing I have noticed is that on many of the problems, the wrong answers are clearly wrong from an equity perspective. So when you get one wrong, your thinking was clearly off. No pick’ems :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes

Yeah, I sometimes feel rather dumb when I get the wrong answer and see a -0.200 equity on my answer. I also like that the book doesn’t just copy the XG table and only gives you the information you need (equity). Too many books that I read that just paste the XG statistics and call it a day without proper formatting.

3 Likes