This is not a duel, it’s a board game, you have the opportunity to play multiple games to even out the odds. Who, for example, sets down and plays one hand of poker or 21 then leaves. You win games of chance and skill by attrition.
It has been calculated that going first, all other things being equal, will give you a 3% advantage. And all other things are never equal. Even great players get beat frequently enough but lesser players and bad rolls regardless of who goes first. Three percent is nothing. Bumping it up to the possibilities of first roll doubles only increases it to maybe 6%, but that’s only if doubles are rolled. And those figures are amortized out over thousands of games.
Tell that to the International Chess Federation, World Draughts Federation, American Go Association or any of hundreds other games where going first is an advantage. In none of those games is a penalty levied against the “winner” of going first. (unless of course you are talking about handicapping).
In chess, for example, to determine who goes first, you select a hand in which a piece is hidden. If it’s white, you go first - no penalty involved. It’s completely fair and it works.
You’re reading things into my posts that just aren’t there. Backgammon, by either rule we’re discussing, is still a fair game. Each player has a 50% chance of winning the opening roll.
What I’m disagreeing with is your claim that the player who goes first is penalized. They’re not. They have an advantage, and allowing them the option to roll again increases their advantage.
One player, or the other, has to go first, but there is often some way to limit the advantage the first player gains. In football, one team chooses who’ll get the ball first, and the other chooses which end of the field they will defend. In curling, the winner of a coin toss (or some other means) chooses who’ll deliver first, and the other team chooses which set of stones they will use. That games like chess and go don’t have a way to limit the advantage to the first player doesn’t mean that other games shouldn’t.
They are. If the second player’s first roll is a double 5 or 6 or even 4 (depending) they have just scored a huge numerical and blocking advantage that the first person didn’t have access to. I guess if you really wanted to even out the playing field, you could stipulate that the second player’s roll, should it be doubles, would only count as face value - not double doubles. I’d be happy with that as well.
But in football, you don’t play an opponent numerous games in a season.
They do though. In Go, for example, the second player can place 2 stones. And they do in handicap play - just not in straight tournament play.
Look, I have no qualms with the backgammon rules. I’ve happily played 99% of my games that way. But if I’m playing for money, I want an equal opportunity at doubles early on in the barricade building portion of the game. It’s the doubles part that queers first move “advantage” and sets it apart from other games.
We can agree to disagree, but disallowing opening doubles for the first player but not for the second player is too much of a disadvantage in my book (when playing for money, because there is almost always a doubling cube involved so things can get out of hand quickly) . And most of the people I’ve played money games with agree. Maybe it’s a regional thing. {shrug}
In tournaments or matches, the colours are balanced as well as possible.
So in a match you play an even number of games.
In a 10 player all-play-all, half the players will have one more White than Black (but never two more.)
Which to say is not that well. According to Pandolfini’s Chess Complete by Bruce Pandolfini, during tournaments, it is up to the organizer to decide how to interpret the rules of which player gets the white pieces first. It is usually assigned, in my experience.
If an inferior player get white first (the advantage) and wins that game, they can the aim for a draw on the subsequent games thus winning that 10 set series.
Not that I condone that strategy, mind, but it can certainly be effective. It’s a lot easier to tie a game than win it.
I’ve played in many British Championships and also international events in Europe. I don’t know what you mean by a colour being ‘assigned’.
For example, in top sections like Grandmaster all-play-alls, there is usually an amusing ceremony where it comes down to a top player drawing for colour.
You also mention a weaker-rated player getting White in the first game of a 10 game match and turning that into a winning advantage.
Firstly I think 10 game matches are very rare compared to tournaments.
Secondly if (as you say) ‘It’s a lot easier to tie a game than win it’, then why would a higher-ranked player lose the first game just because they had Black?
I’ve not played in any international championships nor am I good enough to play against grandmasters but at matches in the US that I’ve participated in, the color was assigned by the governing body. One would assume they were chosen randomly, but I don’t know. They were 10 game matches. I can only speak to my experience.
And I’ll add, I’m a much better backgammon player than a chess player, so I’ll bow to your greater knowledge.
In the backgammon game I play on my computer, sometimes I see a move that looks like it should be legal, but the game won’t let me make it. It seems to happen when most of my chips are in the home quarter, with one or two elsewhere on the board. I’ll want to move a chip in the home quarter to a lower position. For example, let’s say I have chips in columns 4 and 6 in the home quarter, and a chip in the opponent’s home quarter (the only chip not in my home quarter) and I roll a 5 and a 3. I want to move my chips from columns 4 and 6 to column 1. Note that I’m not trying to bear chips off; only getting them into a different column. But the game won’t let me move any of my chips in the home quarter, and I have to move the far chip. Is there a rule about this that I don’t know of? Or is it a glitch in the program?
That should be a legal move. Are you 100% sure that was the exact situation? As long as you use up as much of your roll as you can (which you did if you were to move both chips in your home quarter to 1), that should be legal (assuming also you didn’t have any chips on the bar that needed to enter.)
I think I figured it out. Two dice. One will let me move where I want to, but the remaining one can’t be used (e.g., because of a blot). Apparently that’s illegal.
It’s been a long time since I learned the rules, but I think that’s right. Unless there’s no alternative, you can’t move the number on one die, and then discard the other number because there’s no legal move. If there’s a way to use both numbers, you must take it.
Was your description on Nov 27 incorrect then? It sounded like you had a legal move that used both dice, but it wouldn’t let you. The only time you’re required to use a roll on a particular piece is if you have a piece on the bar - in that case you must bring that piece in before you use the rest of the roll. But if that’s not happening, then there’s no restriction on how you use the roll, as long as you use both dice.