FIBS Board backgammon forum

Many possibilities but what's the best. Will you find it? I didn't.



GNU Backgammon  Position ID: 2ZwLAwQzW5EAHA
                 Match ID   : QYk2AXAAAAAA
+13-14-15-16-17-18------19-20-21-22-23-24-+     O: roderick (Cube: 2)
| X        O  O    |   | O     O  O  X  O |     7 points
|             O    |   | O     O  O  X    |     
|             O    |   | O           X    |     
|                  |   |                  |     
|                  |   |                  |   
v|                  |BAR|                  |     9 point match
|                  |   |                  |   
|                  |   |                  |     
|                  |   |                  |     
| O                |   | X  X     X     X |     Rolled 55
| O  X        X  X |   | X  X  O  X     X |     0 points
+12-11-10--9--8--7-------6--5--4--3--2--1-+     X: You

Pips:

roderick 113
You 138

(answer in rollout-txt)

thanks for the move problem, blitzxz .. move problems are much tougher to construct because of the many more alternatives .. you did a great job with this one

i'm tempted to appoint myself problem editor and change the structure of your question to conform to the style i've used in the Cube 10x series .. but i'm going to resist that annoying self-annointing, self-appointing tendency and await feedback from you and others here

the ASCII style layout you've used is perhaps the oldest and most universal for representing problems .. but i found it much too difficult to "see" .. i took the Position and Match ID's and pasted them into GNUbg which made it much easier for me .. i saved the image and position and have attached the GNUbg SGF file and PNG image here, if others would like to use it

give me the OK and i'll adapt your poll question to the Cube 10x style, calling it Move 101 - Doubles are hard to move otherwise i'll leave it as is .. others opinions are most welcome, too ..

thanks again, blitzxz, for giving us our first move problem .. very well done!



Don't use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.
-- Unknown Quotations by unknown author
(perhaps, it's best not to use a fancy style either when simple works as well)

Yes interesting position 
But I did not look at it until sixty post the png

selecting the various alternative answers for a move problem like this one is an interesting challenge in itself .. even constructing the TXT file for revealing GNUbg analysis as a way of ranking the answers is not easy as one must find each move in the hint or analysis table and copy it individually

but move problems are really good ones .. let's have some more

attached is the GNUbg analysis for this problem, but don't open it until you've cast your vote above

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline.
When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.
-- Clint Eastwood US movie actor & director (1930 - )
(i wonder if Clint plays backgammon? that sounds like good advice in improving our backgammon skills, too)

Quote from: sixty_something on January 30, 2008, 12:57:24 PM
thanks for the move problem, blitzxzi'm tempted to appoint myself problem editor and change the structure of your question to conform to the style i've used in the Cube 10x series .. but i'm going to resist that annoying self-annointing, self-appointing tendency and await feedback from you and others here

the ASCII style layout you've used is perhaps the oldest and most universal for representing problems .. but i found it much too difficult to "see" .. i took the Position and Match ID's and pasted them into GNUbg which made it much easier for me .. i saved the image and position and have attached the GNUbg SGF file and PNG image here, if others would like to use it

I did some changes. But it's ok if you can make the rest.

  i will do it then later, blitzxz, as i see you've already begun that process yourself .. webrunner and Tomawaky are looking into something like that as an alternative .. i'm partial to this style, but probably just because i struggled quite a bit while creating it .. also, i'm not familiar with the gammonline alternative

if you, blitzxz, or anyone else is interested, there is a thread discussing the evolution and details of the Cube 10x style and other suggestions at posting a position as a problem was a problem in our Feedback & Questions forum .. please contribute there with any other suggestions or comments

in my most recent post there discussing your problem, blitzxz, i said

Quote... the process of editing a problem to conform to a "standard" style is almost as time consuming as creating a problem from scratch .. regardless, i do think a "standard" style might be best .. other than adding a post to the forum called suggested problem style and pinning it to the top (which i can do), i don't know what else to do other than what i've done here

if we're going to opt for a "standard" style, i'd rather get on top of it now than wait for a multitude of miscellaneous styles to come in .. on the other hand, i'd like to see what others may come up with .. there may well be a better style than the one i've laboriously created and adopted

whatever we do, i don't want to either impose my style on other users or discourage users from posting a problem in whatever style they want .. some problems might even be posted with nothing more than a Position/Match ID with no answers .. readers could then reply to it with their move or cube decision hidden behind a spoiler tag

the important point is to encourage everyone who runs into an interesting problem, whether a cube or move decision, to post it in anyway you like, even if it's just a Position/Match ID from the GNUbg analysis or any other way you care to express it .. for now, i'll annoint myself as problem editor and feel empowered to make changes to problem posts when i think i can improve on the display or composition of the questions or answers in a helpful way .. others are welcome to make comments and improvements as well in a reply to any question

also, remember to use the new spoiler feature to temporarily hide any part of your reply that discloses your answer or the correct solution to a problem .. you may use the new icon above to easily do that .. and a special thanks to webbie for adding that feature

thanks again, blitzxz .. and i got this one right! 


Every human is an artist. [When] the dream of your life is to make beautiful art.
-- don Miguel Ruiz

Quotethanks again, blitzxz .. and i got this one right!

What is right!?  With 2 grandmaster answers, 2 world-class, and 3 expert choices, I chose the 1st grandmaster choice first, then thought about it a while and chose one of the expert choices!     That's what I get for thinking!   

socksey



"Cup hope in your hands like a beloved bird whose wings will find the sky again." - Laini

well, you could have picked the one that was off the chart 

Now, I've run out of quotations.
-- Me

Quote from: sixty_something on January 30, 2008, 01:27:34 PMconstructing the TXT file for revealing GNUbg analysis as a way of ranking the answers is not easy as one must find each move in the hint or analysis table and copy it individually

No individual copy needed, see my post in the other topic

Quote from: (continued)but move problems are really good ones .. let's have some more

Exactly. 

Might I request that points and pieces not have the same colour. My answer was made with the idea that there was a blot on the 2-point. It's only when setting it up in GnuBg to do a 2-ply rollout that I discovered that my eyes had seen what is not there. That could have been avoided by having better eyes but more easily by having better contrast between pieces and points!

The move that I had chosen was 23/18(2) to make the anchor, 13/8 to make an outer table block and 7/2 to hit on the 2-point. Without that blot to hit I'd have done 23/18(3) to get the hell out of Dodge and 13/8 to make the blocking point and reduce the number of vulnerable blots.