Backgammon Masterclass
By Marc Olsen & Masayuki Mochizuki
Take a backgammon masterclass from the masters! In 2021, Supergrandmaster Mochy and Grandmaster Marc Olsen ran a four-part lecture series as part of the Ultimate Backgammon Championship in Marbella. Their seminars were attended by some of the leading players in the backgammon community and covered the most important and difficult aspects of the game.
Drawing from this material, and in a world-first from Supergrandmaster Mochy, the two authors present their most detailed work to date, outlined in over 400 pages of expert thinking.
Experience the Lectures in Print Form
Every lecture was fastidiously transcribed, including audience questions and the conversations that ensued. What results is akin to a full backgammon curriculum, designed around the needs of real people – intermediates and experts alike – and the difficulties they typically face in real world scenarios.
Backgammon literature often focuses on arcane and complex positions that seldom appear in actual gameplay. More equity is thrown away in mishandling cubes and checkers in common positions than in rare, esoteric ones, simply because they occur more frequently. In Backgammon Masterclass, Marc & Mochy emphasize the importance of thinking deeply about more normal positions.
Order out of Chaos
Backgammon is necessarily complex, and at times can seem chaotic and impenetrable. But everything can be understood with reference to simple concepts. In four clearly defined chapters, Mochy and Marc guide you through some of the most notoriously complex components of backgammon, made simple with easy-to-understand descriptions. Every position is analyzed in depth, from both tactical and strategic perspectives, on the belief that to understand the whole you must understand the sum of its parts.
The authors share their philosophies and easy-to-detect patterns to make sense of the chaos and help you understand strategy in a simpler yet deeper way.
Inside these pages you will learn:
- Strategic Visualization: How to leverage pattern recognition to quickly understand game plans in opening positions.
- Backgame Strategy: How to handle the paradoxical checker play and cube action in difficult backgame formations.
- Game Plan Dynamics: How to analyze the characteristics of each game plan and respond strategically.
- Cube Action in Undefined Positions: How to master the cube in ambiguous middle game positions.
You will also find:
- Over 200 problem positions, each meticulously analyzed.
- Detailed explanations of equity, volatility, timing, purity, prime value and other vital concepts.
- Real world examples from live matches faced by Marc & Mochy.
- Personal anecdotes describing their thought processes in critical game junctures.
- Several new techniques to immediately apply to your next game.
- And much more!
A New Language of Backgammon
With academic precision, Mochy and Marc guide you through the nuances of Priming, Blitzing, Racing and Contact positions. Each chapter explains the relevant theory before applying it to practical examples. The result is not just improved understanding of specific positions, but a new bank of theoretical knowledge to apply in every game – a new language of backgammon.
With well-paced descriptions, Marc & Mochy equip you with a vocabulary that will immediately improve your gameplay. You will learn new ways to describe blitzes, new terminology to distinguish front positions from back positions, and better ways to articulate concepts like Prime Value, Racing Efficiency, and more.
This book is aimed at elevating the gameplay of seasoned players. If you’re an intermediate aiming to move from PR 9 to PR 4, jump into the Masterclass and let Marc & Mochy take you back to school!