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John Longacre 1930/1973 132pp
Bull Publishing
ISBN:051712873X
Now this book is old. The first thing I noticed that was a little off was
that with an opening 6 4, we are encouraged to slot our bar point and split the
back men with the four! (Slotting the opponents bar point is deemed too risky by
Longacre even though that is how the roll is generally played these days). His
section on doubling theory isn't very helpful but you can't really expect too
much from a manual from 1930. However, this book has a little historical value
(for example I learned that a "chouette" is the name of a french bird that gets
attacked by all the other birds) so it should only be seen on the shelves of a
collector.
| Level: Beginner |
Ease of read: 6 |
Quality of material: 1 |
Overall: 1.5 |
Price: A few bucks wherever you see it |
Martin Short, 10/25/01
If you are looking for a book to help you play 3rd millenium backgammon, go
elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you are interested in the history of
backgammon, the development of opening moves, and backgammon theory; this is
must read. This book was originally published in 1930 (just 10 years after the
introduction of the doubling cube). That fact alone makes this book invaluable
from a historical point of view. I have not found any other books from the
1930s. There might be some, but they are certainly not as readily available as
this one (probably due to its republication in 1973).
His opening moves
are of particular interest. He slots the 5 pt. with 5-1, 4-1, and 2-1. That's
not too bizarre by today's standards. But he also slots his own bar point with
the 6-4, 6-3, and 6-2!! Do we have an historical trend here? During the 30s
slotting the 5 pt. and bar point were popular, then sometime before the 70s the
popularity of the bar point slot waned, and finally during the 90s the
popularity of the 5 pt. slot waned. It could be argued that there has been an
historical trend toward more conservative opening moves. Will the trend
continue, or have we in our great wisdom "solved" the opening move problem. Will
a 10-ply Snowie reveal something new to us?
It should also be noted that
the seeds of modern backgammon theory can be found in this book. For example
regarding thematic play he says "Faulty cooordination is generally the chief
mistake of the beginner. He will make a play, otherwise commendable, just when
it has no place, or is directly counter to the indicated strategy of the moment
... Once a style of play is adopted no moves should be made except such as will
directly further the success of that line of action." He also had this to say
regarding the classification of backgammon games "Broadly speaking, the game
should be developed into one of 4 distinct styles of play: (1) The Running Game;
(2) The Blocking Game; (3) The Back Game; (4) The Game of Position". Today we
call these the running, priming, back, and holding games. I would be willing to
bet that the backgammon gurus of the 70s and 80s read this book. John Rickel
(Steelyerpts), 2/10/02
Other book reviews welcome! Email them to DocMartin@Gammoned.com
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