This has to be the most painful game of backgammon I’ve ever seen- overthinking the hell out of everything, captain notebook over here- missed opportunities for cube offerings, the guy looking around while it’s his turn- Yazawa constantly counting pips- geez Louise- ya either know a good position when you see one or you don’t- it’s a game for the coldly rational- you want to calculate & visualize, play chess!
You are correct when you say that "you KNOW a good position or you don't' and sometimes the way to KNOW this is by Pip counting. Otherwise you do not KNOW its a good position your are GUESSING. Akiko and Mochy have both won Monte Carlo (the de facto World Championship) twice. If it's 'painful' for you then you are not here to learn and will probably never rise above intermediate level in this game. TWICE (even assuming you are at that level which is questionable).
Wow, Mochy thought for a long time prior to rolling, at the 5:14 mark! He was obviously considering doubling. (That's because he's such a great player. Every roll, of course, is a new cube decision.) But him thinking for as long as he did (over a minute) surprised me, because I didn't think he had nearly enough to even consider a double. Granted, Akiko is on the roof, with a blot on her five point. But Mochy has no board, a stripped mid-point, and five blots of his own around the board. He still has MUCH work to do. I put that position into XG and XG agrees... No Double / Take. When he DID double on the very next move, I was now pretty sure it was still a No Double / Take.. because he hadn't improved enough! I was right! It's a big blunder to double!
6.22 the 4-2 roll is played (IMHO) illegally. This kind of sophistry need to be made illegal. In effect what he actually did was to play a 3-1 (the checker on Akiko's 4 point had no business being moved). The fact that the checkers ended up where they are supposed to is irrelevant. Why should opponents have to waste their time back checking this type of smart-ass play. Clearly I have the same opinion about the move of the '2'. The best player in the world should be actively advocating against this kind of gamesmanship and stop being it's Champion. Marc Olsen is another top player who thinks this shit is cool, check his you tube "tutorial' here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UaNfMnyyz-8.html He even admits in the blurb that these moves may "catch your opponent off guard"
