How to Play Backgammon (if you must) and how to
Research it (if you have time)
By Shalosh B. Ekhad and Doron Zeilberger
.pdf
.ps
.tex
(Exclusively published in the Personal
Journal of Shalosh B. Ekhad and Doron Zeilberger)
Written: Nov. 15, 2005.
My favorite game is Backgammon.
I wish I could combine business and pleasure, but after
all "it is only a game", or is it?
Important: This article is accompanied by three Maple packages
- Bearoff,
that finds the best move and the probability of winning
when both players are at the bearoff stage of Backgammon
(for one or two dice, one or two players and the
die can be r-faced for any r)
-
BearoffOneDie,
the subpackage that only deals with the one die case.
- Sulam,
generalized Bearoff solitaire where you can start taking
out before getting all your pieces home.
Sample output:
-
if you run the input file
inSipur, you would get the output file
oSipur, that lists all the exceptions
to greedy play (removing a checker if you can)
with one die Bearoff solitaire,
in the ordinary (fair 6-faced die)
with positions up to 15 checkers.
-
if you run the input file
inSipur2, you would get the output file
oSipur2, that lists all the exceptions
to greedy play (removing a checker if you can)
with two dice Bearoff solitaire.
in the ordinary (two 6-faced fair dice, with the
usual convention that a double is a quadruple)
with positions up to 15 checkers.
Personal Journal of Shalosh B. Ekhad and Doron Zeilberger
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