Backgammon is a Game of Small Edges

A different way to look on the game of backgammon and other sports and board games: in the blog magratheazaphod, a distinction between games of small edges (backgammon, checkers) and games of big edges (tennis, basketball and others types of sports) is made. 

What makes backgammon a game of small edges? As you already know, backgammon is a skill and luck game, a game of probabilities, with endless possibilities and almost the same amount of blunders (And you can check out Phil Simborg's weekly position analyses to see a backgammon pro with 40 years experience who confesses about his mistakes). Thus the differences between the really excellent backgammon player and the average, even the inexperienced one, are not very tremendous and can be measured only by looking over a long period of backgammon matches. 

Another example for a small edges kind of game is checkers (draughts) and the game invincible champion, Dr. Marion Tinsley, who according to a legend (and Wikipedia), lost only in nine games of checkers throughout his 45 years of pro checkers career. However, since the game of checkers has been cracked (by the Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta in Canada) and its entire 5 x 10²⁰ possible positions have solved, maybe it should not sit on the same category as the yet unresolved backgammon. 

What is a big edges game then? According to Magra, most, or maybe even all of sports, are games of big edges, where the gap between the pro and the one of its kind are wide. As backgammon players, competitive sportspeople are bound to make many strategic decisions, and of course, they practice constantly and extremely devoted. Yet, an elusive component divides between Michael Jordan, for example, and his strategy minded, athletic, ambitious and dedicated colleagues. So until the Michael Jordan of backgammon will take the 5000 years old game by storm, backgammon is a game of small, yet significant, edges.