Let’s assume that you are unable to seek assistance from a backgammon coach/doctor to diagnose the ailments in your game. What should you do, assuming you are serious about improving your game? The obvious ways are to get Extreme Gammon (XG) and buy books. Undoubtedly this will help. Now I want to introduce you to another way to improve your BG. This is for students of the game who are aspiring in particular to the Master or indeed Grandmaster level.

Let me introduce you to “Tendencies”. What? you may ask? Well have you noticed why a golfer prefers irons over a driver? How about a tennis player who prefers his forehand over backhand? The penalty taker in football likes to hit the ball to the left of the goalkeeper most times and the chess player when playing the opening moves prefers cautious play while others are more aggressive… and the list goes on.

In backgammon, a good coach (and here I am thinking of a player at the level of a master, minimum PR 6.5, at least because this demonstrates a level of understanding and proficiency) will look at your game and most often will find something that you keep doing which leads to blunders. A kind of bias in your play if you will. You might be aware of it, but not the problems it actually causes you.

So this kind of aspect is not really discussed in detail in books but a good coach will look for it at the outset. So with no coach, how to find these so called “tendencies”?

Okay, here I will show you mine. To start with, I suggest you do not make a long list. Just concentrate on the core issues. You will need to review say 10 or more of your recent matches, minimum 7 pointers and above. Think about your blunders. Do they crop up more than once if so write them down. OK I will show you my issues.

• Generally: Concentration lapses happen too much and I play too fast. I think I am working on these but have you noticed that when you play XG gammon a lot your speed of play ramps up! Well it does for me!!
• Checker Play: I have a tendency to play to loose leaving more shots than I should. This actually links in to my tendency to not calculate enough. I am far too lazy!
• The Cube: I can be overly aggressive, but I like that trait and am a taker, which I overdo a bit too much. This is a tendency I need to keep an eye on. In this respect I need to be more disciplined on the match score implications and adjusting to money.

Okay, these are the major issues for me. Of course, there are other problems, but I suggest you concentrate on the major ones first! Now of course if you really feel that you have a serious bias in say hitting plays, then of course you could do as Super Grandmaster Dirk Schiemann did and write a book!! “To Hit or Not to Hit” Volume One, which by the way is superb.

Happy tendencies!!!!