2012 Leuven Open Backgammon: round 2

Guy Van Middelhem on the left and Michel Lamote, winner of last year's tournament, meet in the second round. The level of play is high, which is why I post this round.
This match is to 5 points. The time control is Bronstein system with 12 minutes in the bank and 12 seconds per move.
The annotations here are based on a 4 ply analysis by GNU Backgammon. Feel free to ad your own insights in the comments.

[@soulisalban9718]

Thank you for posting this. I am only taking this game seriously lately. It does seem though that no matter what the best moves are, people systematically get away with worse moves (not only in this game you post). This shows that it is much more a game of chance than of skill. If any player with a good foundations plays any of these guys he/she can conceivably beat them at least once in 5 games. I played grandmaster gnubg and beat the grandmaster in a 7 game series. Try that with chess!

[@joaosoares-rr5mj]

when michael was thinking about dobling i was like "no you idiot!!! this is too risky!!! you're betting all in the dice! dont double!!!!" than he did it... im glad he loose the first one to learn not to double in such a tight situation...

[@mobiusklein9140]

The cube at 22.23 is a -0.105 blunder

[@osirissalgado6689]

the dice is the chance part but the skill in how to maneuver your piece is where the skill comes into place and to block and to keep your opponent from reaching their safe zone.There seems to be 80 percent skill and 20 percent luck.I love backgammon been playing for years and still lose,that means the game doesn't get dull.

[@pdwu2b]

Not completely. With a decent knowledge of the game you certainly have a probability of at least 20% to win a short match. With two top-players like these, the probability of winning is very close to 50%, but it is not all luck. For a model on winning probabilities based on match length and skill-difference, see our website (in description of the video). Follow the "rating" link, click on a name, and see the "expectation" tab. At the time of this writing Michel has a 1% edge over Guy.

[@محمدفاضل-ذ4م]

لماذا لم يكملو الفر الأول

[@franklehmann7998]

Does anybody know where this Board and the checkers are availble?
Can't find such a Backgammonset in the Webshops.

[@joaosoares-rr5mj]

im not at the end but, i think michael will loose because of the clock O_O he took too many time to make some decisions

[@soulisalban9718]

I understand and I agree. Thank you for the explanation. The site indeed validates your point

[@soulisalban9718]

I know I am comparing apples with oranges since chess has NO chance involved, but what I am trying to say is that there is an upper bound of skill everyone can reach and then no more skill is possible. At that point luck takes over. I still love the game obviously but at this level, no player has more skill than another , and thus for them it is ALL about luck. Do you agree with this?

[@xchalibur77]

I know its an old comment but the rules are the same.
This is what logic would make it to be and still we see those same faces in finals.
Clearly is so much more than luck but the ablility to keep the same strategy even when the ods are aganist you. It's a game of nervs and ... skill.

[@Haigoku.]

UPLOAD more videos dude. Whats wrong with you

[@joaosoares-rr5mj]

wtf, the clock stoped!!!!!

[@ChuckDownfield2727]

bill walsh on the left?

[@mitziipurplelove]

that's great

[@ShowMeYoBoob]

u r wrong..backgammon does not have skill limits and if u play with learning programs u will know what i mean because no one plays like a program and i think no one will ever do... backgammon is a whole science