{"id":34906,"date":"2025-11-24T10:22:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=34906"},"modified":"2025-11-24T10:22:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:22:32","slug":"a-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=34906","title":{"rendered":"A Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m getting better at backgammon, winning about half the time I play now.  Sometimes I can even demolish xgammon pretty thoroughly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This morning&#8217;s game was like that&#8230; until the moment that it wasn&#8217;t.  I thought I was going to have it in the bag, until I didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s go through it.  Here&#8217;s an interesting position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082459-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34899\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is an interesting position, and I considered doubling at this point, though I thought White would resign if I did.  White&#8217;s position isn&#8217;t great &#8212; it has three pieces on my half of the board that have to navigate a gauntlet I&#8217;ve constructed &#8212; but it&#8217;s a better position than mine; White has to move seven pieces into its home quadrant while I still have to move eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082706-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34900\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White did <em>not<\/em> navigate that gauntlet.  White succeeded in knocking one of my pieces off the board, and I knocked White&#8217;s pieces off the board on my way back around, and now I was in a position to take my pieces off the board while White still has a piece to put back onto the board&#8230; except I have a strong position that will prevent that for several turns&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082736-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34901\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;until, with three pieces still to remove, White gets back on the board and knocks one of my pieces <em>off<\/em> the board!  Will I escape?  I only have to remove three more pieces.  I still feel likely to win this one&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082748-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34902\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;but I get back on the board and am then immediately knocked back off.  No, this is not looking good&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082816-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34903\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;but I do manage to escape!  Now, to rush around to my quadrant, hopefully it won&#8217;t take many moves to do so&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082828-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34904\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve arrived!  And to prove that we&#8217;re here, we&#8217;ve arrived!  I have to remove three pieces, White has to remove six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_082838-1200x720.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a backgammon game\" class=\"wp-image-34905\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, on the eve of my final role, the final position of the board &#8212; White with four pieces to remove, me with 1, needing only to roll anything at all to remove that single piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was, as the Iron Duke said of Waterloo, &#8220;a near run thing.&#8221;  If it had taken another move to escape or another move to get around the board, White would have had this game, I&#8217;m sure.  Suffice it to say, this victory felt earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watch.  After this, I&#8217;ll lose fifteen in a row. \ud83d\ude06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m getting better at backgammon, winning about half the time I play now. Sometimes I can even demolish xgammon pretty thoroughly. This morning&#8217;s game was like that&#8230; until the moment that it wasn&#8217;t. I thought I was going to have it in the bag, until I didn&#8217;t. Let&#8217;s go through it. Here&#8217;s an interesting position.<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=34906\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;A Case Study&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[5163],"class_list":["post-34906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-backgammon","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}