How To Be A Winner in Backgammon – Part two

Continuing from the last article let us look at engagement, deliberateness, decisiveness and inner-directedness as being the qualities of the winners in backgammon.

• Engagement. Being temperamentally a rationalist myself, I'd like to be able to report that Winners are emotionally immune to the slings and arrows of outrageous dice. But it simply isn't so. In general the Winners are not the players who maintain a façade of icy detachment. They are visibly responsive to the course a match takes - they look pleased when they are winning, and when losing tend to resemble a determined defensive lineman about five yards in front of the goal line. One thing they don't do is ever completely lose control, and another thing they don't do is ever let their emotions dictate the plays they make.

Strangely enough, it is often the players who appear perfectly calm on the outside who are capable of the most irrational plays - the cube drops that are obviously driven by fear, the greedy attacking plays that are completely contrary to the dynamics of the position, and so on.

• Deliberateness. Some Winners tend to play rapidly, but most play a little more slowly than average. Even the fast players among them don't rush things, though, and if an unusually difficult play comes up they will take the time they need.

• Decisiveness. If the Winners aren't the fastest players in the hall, they certainly are not the slowest either. The slowest players are those who bog down and can't make up their minds, perhaps can't even figure out what to think about, and who will sometimes just sit and wait for a genie to come along and pop the right play into their heads. The Winners are (obviously, if you're sitting across the board from one of them) thinking about something, and their thought process always leads to a conclusion and a decision.

• Inner-directedness. This is one of the most distinctive and noticeable traits of Winners: they are perfectly happy to make unpopular types of plays, and to trust their own understanding of the game rather than try to imitate fashion and "cutting-edge theory". They stand at the opposite extreme from those players, typically beginners, who are more concerned about what the onlookers (including their opponent) will think of their play than whether it offers the best chance to win.

Of course there is no moral imperative to try to win backgammon tournaments, and it is perfectly possible to play in a tournament and have a marvellous time without really giving a damn whether you win the thing or not. Every now and then you'll win anyway! On the other hand winning is more fun, and if that is your objective then it makes sense to emulate the veterans with proven track records.

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