Writings from the White Forest, all about backgammon, life and universe. . . . .

This page is just for some remarks about playing, studying and thinking this crazy game. There will be no special order in which these writings will go on, but they come as they come, so what. . . I will add more writings as i please and have some ‘serious’ thoughts. Well, my thoughts are serious only if the readers think so, so readers are responsible for these writings and how they do read these, not me.

2. 1. 2001

Well, it was back 1996 when i made my ‘comeback’ to international backgammon tournaments in Istanbul . Haven’t been playing much in ten years, but as i found FIBS, i had time and place to play this game so much that i thought my game wasn’t that bad . When you have kids you just don’t have time enough to go round places to play much. Ok, when i entered that tournament, my opponents watched the sheet and haa,,, never heard of this guy, must be some newcomer with loads of money who wanted just to spend some of that playing tournament. So they, some of them were world class players, just tried to make their matchplay as complicated as they could, as they thought they were in better position to win matches that way. And i, as i was just discovered matchplay again, was trying to keep my game simple and in basic style, as i wasn’t so keen playing my game too complicated. You may call it lucky, me too, but i won many games there just keeping my game simple. Got some money too. My point here is that solid basic game wins over too complicated play, if you can keep your game solid in most cases. Don’t overplay . Just play as you feel comfortable and then, in some point, you can start to complicate your play, but it must be done step by step. If you try to jump forvard too quickly, you may misread some steps and then, if your opponent is good enough, he/she can use those holes in your play against you and gain one point here and there, and it often happens that those points are the most valuable for your win/lose ratio . Just a small edge can gain you much as the difference with a succesfull player and a non-so-succesfull player can be just some % .

3. 1. 2001

There in Istanbul i saw something i haven’t seen awhile, ie. better player hit almost everything loose in the early stages of a game against a much weaker player ( a good education thing, Joe ) . So we played lots of games same style just for educational purposes, one player did that hitting and the other ( or others ) played against that style . We learned a lot and it was fun too. Most of those games very very long, had lots of chances and happenings . When the better player played the hitting game, indeed he was favourite to win and if other player did win, he had luck with him with important places . But when we changed the players, it was other way round until weaker players really adopted that strategy and after that they were tie-games. Well, after all that we all Finns made some money, sure it wasn’t because of that hittinglesson, but i am sure it helped a lot . Do that and you will be amazed of all those things it will teach you. And you all will have lots of fun too.

8. 1. 2001

Well, this isn’t really about backgammon, but it can be related to this funny game in some weird way, i just cannot tell how as it would ruin the pleasure of finding how. . . . . . It was early sunday morning, about four am, and we were a group of five, girls and guys, aheading home after a long and thursty night at the bar, and for some odd reason we felt a bit hungry, so we went to that grill to get some makkara ( sausage ) and hamburger. As strange it is, all that junkfood tastes just great at that hour, outdoors and when the snow is falling down . Sure, there were lots of others for the very same reason, and there was to be some kind of line to be in some kind of order, . but as it was, everybody in that line was very drunk, so the line was a little something else but a line and of course somebody went somewhere else but to the end of that line. To be short, a fight started, somebody might get hurt . You know, we are finns, we can be very drunk, and we can fight, so there was nothing special, especially at that hour . The thing what was odd, the fighters were a boy and a girl, odd indeed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, one guy from our group started to sign ” silent night, holy night” ( of course in finnish ) and we all five started to sign that tune too, You know, christmas was a couple of weeks ago, but the snow was falling . Other people in that line started to smile, no fuss, but the fighters stopped their fight, you just cannot fight when somebody signs a christmas song, no matter if it is christmas or not . They actually made friends, not the best of but anyway. It seemed, i might be wrong too, as i was drunk too, but everybody there at that hour were in good mood, got their makkaras in order and, as i hope, went home safely and fell asleep smiling. For sure it took some hours for somebody to get home, but who cares, it is just another story.

9. 1. 2001

Luck? What is that ?Usually it is what has happened against you when your opponent rolls some lucky rolls to beat you, but do you remember what has happened before that ? How it happened so, that your opponent was in that bad shape that the only way out there from misery is to get some lucky numbers ? Were you lucky in any way to get there or was it just pure skill ? It is so hard to remember your lucky rolls . Any fun to go to bar to tell friends that you were lucky but lost or he/she did overplay you or something else, where’s then the symphaty ? But of course you played very well and the only way you lost was some lucky shots and rolls . Even beer tastes better then . I always like to think that i was lucky enough to get my opponent to be more lucky to beat me. That he had to be much more lucky. Then, if we put skill vs. luck, we would be more precice . To put that simple, skill is a tool what you use to make your opponent use all the luck possible to beat you . The better player you are, the more luck he/she needs . You just make your luck. To put this into figures : if you are 55% to 45% better in skill, he/she must be 55%/45% in luck to make the game even, and if you are better skilled than that, the more lucky he/she needs to be . If your opponent happens to be more lucky than that, you can lose, but he/she has to be that lucky. So what ? If you feel you are unlucky most of the time, the only way is to improve your game, you have to work harder, study more and try to be the better player. Nowdays we have great tools for that, Snowie, Jellyfish, good books etc etc, but maybe the best tool is just to watch very good players in internet gamesites . Don’t just watch but use your brains all the time to think why they did that or didn’t do that . Think first what you would do in a situation and then when you see the actual moves think why your thinking was different that theirs . At some point you may realize that the best players can make their luck. They can play their games in such way that it seems that they are lucky but in fact they played their games so that they have more good rolls and their opponent have more bad rolls and that difference with those moves can be as small as some 1-2 % and if you waste or gain 1-2% all the time, that is huge difference. I once saw one friend of mine has a t-shirt where was in small font : ” 1, 7 % is huge ”, and that is what backgammon is all about. You don’t have to be good in maths but you have to understand the concept to play well in backgammon and for sure to play well in life too.

10. 1. 2001

Twenty years in desert. Now i would like to tell some thoughts and feelings about what it feels to play over twenty years in backgammon tournaments and never won any. I’ve been in finals and semifinals and as strange it sounds i feel i have been lucky to play in these tournaments and have won so much i have had even money, so these travellings haven’t been too costly, seen places and people i couldnt see in any other way, made lots of friends etc etc. I have seen players who have just learned this game just awhile ago to win biggies, but i think they have not learned so much about backgammon, life and everything than i have . It is kinda sad thing to say, but one can learn much more when one has to fight his way through a jungle than if one has a highway to drive. I really feel pity for those who stop to play when they think they are not lucky enough to win anything in just some years. They just don’t understand the concept at all, it is not that you have to be something this or that, you have to make your own concept and work for that. If everything don’t go your way, you just have to work harder for your own way of life. I love this game so much that i understand that if i am not succesfull enough, i have done something wrong and i would like to know what that something is, because there is so much in this game nobody will ever learn it all. The main thing in this game is that i have learned to laugh when i see strange and funny things happening. It sure ain’t that serious game. Or is it ? Well, i don’t really care, as long as i can learn more, and it goes with everything else. If you go deep inside to this game ( or anything else ) you may have what i call soul and i like to think that i have soul for this game and i am lucky enough to know many other players, some of them are very good, some not, who have also soul for this game. I know that if i work long enough, there will be some success for me too. Of course it bothers me if i lose an important match, it bothers me more, if i lose against some lucky rolls, but, on the other way, i have been lucky enough to get there to play that match and on the way there i must have had some lucky rolls too. It sure is better to be skilled and to have some soul than just to be lucky. I really don’t understand those players who say that it is better to be lucky than to be good, as it feels much better at the end if you have earned what you’ve got. Luck is something that you can have for free, but skill, you have to work for it.

8. 2. 2001

Good guys don’t pass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

27. 2. 2001

Very good guys don’t take everything, and what that is supposed to mean ? I guess it can mean anything and everything if if doesn’t mean anything at all. This is the piece that you guys don’t agree or whatever. The thing i really was wondering is an ugly phrase ” social order ”. And i don’t mean ” orderly ”, but something that you order to get something ” or ” to make an order” and the word “social” with it. Sure there is a better word in english for that but i don’t know it, so if there is one, please let me know. That phrase is same time annoying and a good thing as as far i know it means that something is supposed to happen sooner or later and if there is a place and time for that it’s gonna happen but on the other hand it can also mean that it can in some way to be made happen . But if you make an social order, what the heck is that ? It just cannot be made, it just can happen . But can one individual help it happen ? Isn’t that supposed to have more individuals and the world all over us to make it happen as a social order. So is it solely the universe that can make social orders, but frankly, it just cannot be so. Geez, i must think it over again . . . . . . . . heheheh.

8. 3. 2001

Just curious, if this has happened to anyone. . . . . . . . . Before an important match with big bucks, did your second best friend, who accidently was to play you, tell you that drugs and alcohol do not affect your gameplay in any way and there will be no tests in the gameroom and then took you to bar to have some beer, whiskey or vodka just to relax you ?

19. 4. 2001

Was sitting outside watching the winter melting away one evening. Saw the sun go down and that sunset light same time as the winter was almost gone to some other place where it was more needed. Indeed, was there never any winter in the desert and soon, very soon, there is no more ice on the lake, well . . . . a bit cold it was. . . . As some say, at sunset and sunrise, one can feel something what may be called energymovement, ain’t that the very same thing as when you have to concertate to something important you just blow your mind empty and go get the feeling of that momentum and then you just might be more ready to do that whatever you are going to do. You focus something deeply and you can feel that energy needed for the job coming to you. At that momentum one can give energy away to get energy back . It is not only getting something, but to give too. We ain’t robbers. I always thought it was just that you have to concertate and then . . . voila. . . but it must be something else too and surely it is . Things just don’t happen, they happen in some more complexed way to get one somewhere and on the way one have to feel ready to see those happenings and what they can mean . This journey must have all the odds and ends and turn-arounds if it is going to end to something special . As when thinking all about this in that balcony that evening i really don’t understand all the whinings and things people and players whine all about bad luck and . . . . . there is much more that just bad luck and happenings. Btw, that pic is online at ” The Gobi Gallery” on main page.