Variations

Forum Archive : Variations

 
Simborg Rule

From:   Scott
Address:   gammonus1999@yahoo.com
Date:   15 February 2005
Subject:   Simborg Rule??
Forum:   GammOnLine

Have you seen Phil Simborg's article at GammonVillage where he describes
the "Simborg Rule"?

>  Simborg Rule: The opening roll shall not be used to make a point
>  (e.g. you cannot play 8/5, 6/5 with the opening 3-1).

My first impression is that this idea is not a good one, but I want to
hear some opinions of the knowledgeable folks here. Pros/cons? Thanks.

Gregg Cattanach  writes:

With this rule, it takes almost all of the equity boost for winning the
first roll. I think it's interesting, but doubt it will 'catch on'.

It looks like this is the way to play these numbers with the Simborg
rule (you can't make a point with the opening roll):

61: 24/18 24/23
31: 13/10 6/5
42: 24/20 13/11
53: 24/21 13/8
64: 24/18 13/9 (or 24/14)

Gregg C.

Douglas Zare  writes:

People often suggest rule changes to eliminate some annoying luck in
backgammon. However, these changes just move the luck around, and often
don't make the game any deeper or more skillful.

While we would have to get used to different positions in the opening,
positions encountered under the Simborg Rule may be less varied than in
regular backgammon. That's because it is much harder for one side to
gain a 3:1 advantage in board strength, as often happens in regular
backgammon, and the back checkers will move on almost every opening
roll.

Another problem is that it is an additional compexity to explain to new
players, or those familiar with a variant of backgammon.

Douglas Zare

Gregg Cattanach  writes:

Good point. The 'best' play with the point making rolls with the Simborg
rule all involve player #1 moving the back men (31 is a toss-up between
13/10 6/5 and 13/10 24/23), which would lead to a lot more mutual
holding games and less prime-vs-prime and blitzes.

Once your opponent has split his back men going for an advanced anchor,
it's generally right for you to do the same. This would tend to make the
games more boring.

Walter Trice  writes:

I don't see the need. Only a very small part of the luck that decides a
game comes on the first roll. In fact if someone were to do a study it
might turn out that the opening roll is well below average in joker-
potential.

I do enjoy playing off-beat versions of backgammon, but to be
interesting they need to be really different -- things like the
"Pyramid-gammon" event that Bill Davis held in Chicago a while back. The
Simborg rule doesn't change the game much, except perhaps to make it
just a tiny bit more boring.

If the objective is to put more skill and less luck into the game, we
already have some variants that do that, such as Nackgammon and Acey-
Deucey. So the key question about the Simborg Rule is "Is it
interesting?" and, imho, the answer is no.
 
Did you find the information in this article useful?          

Do you have any comments you'd like to add?     

 

Variations

Acey-deucy  (J. Nagel, Dec 2004) 
Acey-deucy  (Steve Ewert, June 1998) 
Acey-deucy  (Lee+, Jan 1997) 
Acey-deucy  (John David Galt+, Dec 1995) 
Acey-deucy  (James Eibisch, Apr 1995) 
Backwards play  (Colin Bell+, Feb 1996) 
Bad advice  (Jason Lee+, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Best-of-n variant of match play  (Tim Chow+, Feb 2009) 
Bluff Cube  (Timothy Chow+, Dec 2012) 
BluffGammon  (Christian Munk-Christensen, June 2009) 
Cancelgammon  (Ilia Guzei+, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Domino backgammon  (Laury Chizlett, Sept 1999) 
Duodecagammon  (David Moeser, Dec 2000) 
Duplicate backgammon  (Dean Gay+, Jan 1997) 
Duplicate backgammon  (Albert Steg, Feb 1996) 
Exact bearoff  (Chris Moellering+, Dec 2002) 
Fevga  (George, Sept 2004) 
Fevga (or Moultezim)  (Igor Sheyn+, May 1995) 
Freeze-out match  (Dave Brotherton, July 1998) 
Gabgammon  (jckz, Oct 2005) 
Greek backgammon  (Alexandre Charitopoulos, Aug 2003) 
Greek backgammon  (Alexandros Chatzipetros, June 1997) 
Greek backgammon  (Marc Jacobs+, Feb 1994) 
Hit man  (Matt Reklaitis, Jan 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Hyper backgammon  (Gregg Cattanach+, Dec 2000) 
Hyper backgammon  (Michael A Urban, Oct 1993) 
International backgammon  (Bob Lancaster+, Oct 2002) 
Jacquet  (Mark Driver, June 2001) 
Joker cube  (Joe Russell+, May 2011) 
Khachapuri  (Michael Petch+, Sept 2010) 
Kleinman's tandem backgammon  (Fabrice Liardet+, May 2010) 
LongRun  (Bill Hickey, Mar 2010) 
Longgammon  (Michael Strato, Dec 2000) 
Low number first, fixed dice, others.  (Walter Trice, Jan 1997) 
Mexican  (Tom Henry, Apr 1997) 
Middle Eastern backgammon  (Alan Cairns, Mar 2002) 
Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, July 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Misere (backgammon to lose)  (Jason Lee+, Apr 1995) 
Misere, Chase, Skewed dice  (Stein Kulseth, Jan 1997) 
Nackgammon  (Ken Arnold, July 1996) 
Nackgammon Shuffle  (Stick, Sept 2011) 
Nackgammon opening moves  (Warwick+, Feb 2002) 
Narde  (narde, Nov 2006)  [Long message]
Nardi  (KL Gerber+, Nov 2002) 
No hit  (RedTop+, May 2004) 
Nuclear backgammon  (Walt Swan, Apr 1997) 
Old English  (Nick Wedd+, Feb 1996) 
One roll lookahead  (Stephen Turner, Mar 1997) 
Opening slot rule  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2006) 
Other variations  (Douglas Zare, Feb 2000) 
Plakoto  (Ed Dengler+, May 1995) 
Plakoto  (Pasteel M., Feb 1994) 
Plakoto express  (Athansios Vagias, Feb 2005) 
Portes  (George, Sept 2004) 
Roll-over  (Edward D. Collins, Oct 1997) 
Russian backgammon  (Daavid Turnbull, Aug 1991) 
SassanGammon  (Chiva Tafazzoli+, June 2009) 
Shesh Besh  (G.S., May 2003) 
Simborg Rule  (Scott+, Feb 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Slot backgammon  (Fabrice Liardet+, Aug 2008)  [GammOnLine forum]
Sudden death, Woodpecker, Gerhardsen  (Fredrik Dahl, Jan 1997) 
Tablestakes betting  (TrueMoneygames, June 2002) 
Takhteh  (Bruce Scott+, Mar 2003) 
Tandem Backgammon  (Mislav Kovacic, Feb 2012) 
Tavla  (Arda Findikoglu, Nov 2004) 
Tavla  (ucc02cx+, Feb 1997) 
Tavli (Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga)  (Jens Larsen, July 1997) 
Tavli question  (Brus+, Apr 2011) 
Tracy turn around  (Michael J. Zehr, Feb 1996) 
Tri-gammon  (Gregg Cattanach, Sept 2000) 
Trictrac  (David Levy+, May 1998) 
Trigammon  (James Eibisch, Jan 1997) 

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