|
First, can I say that I absolutely loved this book and recommend it to
all those anywhere between beginner and world-class. It's systematic
and it explains the issues well.
However, it has one flaw that has thrown me off in some of my comments
here. While I haven't seen a cube error in this book (and a poster
says there aren't any), he often skips indications about the
marginality or otherwise of the actions. For example, he discusses
(problem 173) the position after 65, 55, dance. His analysis is
basically that without a blot to shoot at, there aren't enough market
losers. No double. Well, that is the correct result. But it is
rather misleading since doubling only costs about 0.015 according to
gnu rollouts. A more accurate commentary would have said that there
are reasons to double and reasons to hold, and that the decision is
ultra-marginal. Personally, I like the hold because I think a lot of
favourable sequences will lead to bad takes. Others might like the
double if there's any prospect of a pass. In any case, it's close
enough that the double/hold decision depends here on such psychological
and sporting considerations.
Anyway, if Robertie had given some indication that the hold in this
problem is ultra-marginal, my conceptual understanding of 55 blitz
opening positions would have been much stronger.
Sorry if this sounds like negative remarks about a great book. There
are other examples of marginal positions being portrayed as clearer
than they are.
Paul Epstein
|
![[GammOnLine forum]](pics/GammOnLine.gif)
![[Long message]](pics/Long.gif)
![[Recommended reading]](pics/Star2.gif)
Recommended reading
![[Recent addition]](pics/New.gif)
Recent addition