Video starts at 15:20

Hi Daniel I can’t find again the lesson where you gave a tip for bearoffs with 2 checkers. I only remember you must get close to 7.something to know which one to move forward. .

Great video. Thanks, Dan.

Love positions where 31's are difficult to play... for my opponent ;-)

What Marc said is I think what unites backgammon players, that we compete against others and against ourselves, to be the best we can be and to strive for mastery. Great interview!

What a great podcast! I just went to my first tournament, the NY Open 2025, and you're right, Nick, you travel and to a backgammon tournament and find people you feel you have something in common with, which can be hard to find, and it's wonderful. I listened to your commentary for the Monte Carlo Championship 2024, and thought it was really top notch. Dan, you're a great interviewer, and I am really learning from your lessons here on your channel. Thank you!

Great lesson, thanks, Dan!. My choices on the first board are 24 to 18, and on the second, 24 to 22 and 8 to 7.

In White to play 3-3, I wondered about playing 8 to 5 with all three and then hitting on the 2, and why that is wrong if you will be covering your 5 point and you also have a spare on the 6 to cover with a 4 on the next roll. Is it because you will then have no spares in your home board? And because playing 24-and 16-13 puts you so much further ahead in the race and a checker doesn't get stuck on the 24 point? What if green is able to make our 5 point on the next roll? Is that not very threatening because of our having escaped his home board? And that we would have a broken prime even if we made the 2 point on the next roll and green didn't get off the bar? Thanks, great lessons!

Nice lesson thank you

I really appreciate this! Thank you for all of the excellent learning content at this level!

In the last examples the left one,can green redouble if we dance?any 3 or 1 and he makes a 5 point home board follwed by a dance for us gives him a huge advantage

Nice, but.....How do you calculate the 40%?

Why should we treat the game as DMP when the opponent has the cube? In true DMP the cube is dead for both players, whereas in this situation it's not dead for your opponent. Shouldn't that mean something?

Really helpful. I always ponder when cubing or confronting a cube during the holding game . Dan can you please confirm the name of the book and author you mentioned. Thanks

MET and Neil’s Numbers understood thank you! But how am I supposed to use it in my cube decisions?

Hi Dan. Great video! I wonder whether you could explain what is meant by 1) Positional plays, and; 2)Technical plays. They come up in books alot. I've looked at the glossary of terms you linked in the comments, but I don't understand the explanation of them. My current understanding is that they're analogous to strategic plays and tactical plays, but not sure that's quite right. Thank you :)

thanks for the great lesson dan. i recently played a game where i made four back-to-back blunders while trying to contain my opponent's checker. clearly i didn't understand the main principles governing those types of positions. this video really helped clear some of it up.

Great interview. Michy goes into this in great detail in his Back Checker Strategy and he also provides a number of "rules of thumb" for when to stay or go from the butterfly anchor. It is a highly recommended read.

I don't have Windows. Can I play on Mac mini m4?

00:18 what are the five roles that take off two checkers?

7/10 not bad, I though Quiz 10 was simple.

I much preferred your lessons Dan, you put in some real hardwork, way more just a set of computer generated answers from xtreme gammon.

4/10…I suck at bg. I have a chess elo of 1700 but I’m struggling to ‘see’ bg if I’m honest…I’ve only been playing about six weeks but I’m on to my 3rd book, have watched lots of vids and played lots of games but when I play on the xg iOS app I just commit blunder after blunder after blunder and when I play on nextgammon I just get spanked all the time…I’m not gonna give up just yet because I do enjoy it but I’m wondering if I’ll ever ‘see’ it. Great vid though, cheers.

Great vid thanks…I watched a couple of your other vids before I realised they were in order. So here I am starting from the beginning…I’m sure I’m gonna enjoy working my way through all these lessons…thanks again👍🏼

I’ve never thought about playing 1 pointers as a means to progression. Great idea. Thank you.

Great lesson thanks.

This is excellent. Thank you.

Thanks for your course on backgammon. what is the name of the software that you use to describe the pattern?

I'm sorry, but while I appreciate many or your video, this is not one of them. Yes, you explain how to calculate using Neil's numbers, but you do not at all explain "WHY [the match equity table] is useful" as the description states. Just saying that it is important is not the same as explaining it.

I have a question ... I'm a beginner .... very beginner :-) Can you explain to me why it is better to have more checkers in the high points than in the low ones? I thought having all checkers on point 1 was better

Great lesson thanks Dan. I just blundered in a league match after missing making the 23 point anchor against 12 in the zone but could hear your voice telling me to make it. Next time I'll listen to that voice :)

This rule is not all that accurate. There are six three checkers positions with 9 pips; one (333) is a take. There are six three checkers positions with 10 pips; a half of them (622, 442, 433) are takes.

Nice explained. The grey color what it represents???

Great video

Finally an explanation that makes sense to me, thank you!!!

GENIUS!

Nice lesson, as always. What did the GMs play?

Can you please show positions in 2D? I think it's better to learn in 2d board🙄 in 3d i feel uncomfortable😁

Absolutely fantastic video. All of the explanations are clear and concise. Many thanks, to both of you.

With 4 or 5 on the midpoint. Was the spare one the 8pt the deciding factor?

2:35 Damn is this white's first move? XD

It’s been a while. Hope all is well and you’re enjoying your break! You must be at work on something big! Was great to see you commentating in Monte Carlo!

The summary points at the end are fine, but I don't understand how the positions presented lead to those common sense conclusions. I watched the whole video twice looking for an explanation. Saying 'as we can see... it's better to do x than y here, whereas before it was better to do y instead of x' does not make me magically able to see why. I assume the tiny, unreadable numbers from xg back up the claim, but, again, this does not explain why.

Someone please tell me what I am missing here: at 4 away, white should double, because if they win the game they win the match. Black should then re-double, so if they win the game they win the match, as well. at 3 away, white should not double, even though if they win the game they win the match, because black will re-double and thus also wins the match if they win the game. In both situations, white not doubling means they give up the chance to win the match in this game. In both situations, doubling results in identical conditions: redouble by black and a DMP game. So… what am I missing? How, statistically, can there be a difference at all, much less a big difference, in expected match outcomes?

Kudos to Jeremy for taking the time to create this. A lot of equity swings in cube decisions. As you pointed out, the method becomes quick and easy after a few practice exercises. Encourage you to keep planning family ski trips. Thank you Dan for an excellent site - great for learning the game.

Where did you get that bored

I keep hearing the Clash’s “Should I stay or should I go” in my head while watching this 😮

Great show

At 6:50 hitting and slot is correct because xg wants to go to backgame strategy I'm sure🙂 you hit and hope he hits back and you get 1 to build 1-3 backgame🙄do you agree?

At 5:06 you must hit the green and leave as many blots as you can 🤔🤔you must force white to hit you back🙄 I can't believe xg is right😐😂 if you don't hit and white runs away with 6,3 your timing will be ruined