The first ever backgammon book that I ever read was the classic by Paul Magriel whose nickname was X-22. He is a former world backgammon champion and also a very strong poker player as well. His classic book “backgammon” from 1976 came out at a similar time to “Supersystem” in poker by Doyle Brunson and it has similar iconic status in backgammon. The book has received a fair bit of criticism based on how little doubling strategy is in the book and this is for me as important as making the actual moves.
The equity behind doubling strategy is key to understanding the level of your decision making processes. For me though the real success of this book was in how it broke down the game into clearly defined situations and based on the checker positions then it allowed players to formulate a plan rather than just blindly make their moves as in intermediate level play and novice players. In my mind the difference between intermediate level players and novice players is that intermediate players make better checker decisions and also start to comprehend doubling strategy.
But the highest level of player takes doubling strategy to another level entirely and has a fantastic grasp of equity in game and match situations as well as an acute feel for meta game dynamics. In Chess then books like “Simple Chess” and “Plan like a Grandmaster” were great books that helped players to get from novice to intermediate and probably learned intermediate level players a thing or two…….in short though….if you are a novice or intermediate level player then you have to buy this book if you can get your hands on one that is.
