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Backgammon-Bibliographie        
  Autoren (Name, Vorname) Cooke, Barclay
  Bradshaw, Jon
  Titel Backgammon - The Cruelest Game
  Untertitel The Art of Winning
  Cover Cover Cover
  Softcover Hardcover
  Jahr 1974
  Seiten 210
  Verlag Random House Inc., New York
  Bindung Hardcover (mit Schutzumschlag) / Softcover
  ISBN 0-394-48812-1 (Hardcover) / 0-394-73243-X (Softcover)
  Sprache Englisch
  Anmerkungen Gleichzeitig sowohl als Hard- als auch als Softcover erschienen.
  Vom selben Autor Paradoxes and Probabilities, 1978
Championship Backgammon, 1980
  Rezensionen "It's worth noting, for the interest of the original poster, that probably 90% of the material in Cooke's first & most widely read book (Cruelest Game) still hold just fine. [..] Cruelest Game remains an excellent introduction to thinking seriously about backgammon. [..]
Also -- the book is a pleasure to read. It looks good, is written with style and real personality -- something I find lacking in post-70's backgammon books, especially introductory ones. The classic books of the 70's really help a newcomer to recognize and enjoy the drama and beauty of the game, rather than treating backgammon as some sort of math problem. Cruelest Game, Deyong's 'Playboy's Book', Jacoby/Crawford, -- I don't think they have modern equivalents in print." – Albert Steg, rec.games.backgammon, August 1998

"When I learned BG in 1975, Cooke/Bradshaw was not only considered the best beginning book, but simply the BEST BOOK on the game. (Of course there weren't any advanced books back then...). [..]
He was very heavy on defensive tactics, was almost obcessed with building the 20-point, but had a serious distaste for splitting the back checkers (on the 24-point). His cube recommendations ("when in doubt, don't double; when in doubt, take") also tended to be on the conservative side by today's standards. He much preferred to double his opponent out rather than to see a take (and risk the potential frustration if the game turned around):
Having said all that, Cooke was definitely (IMO) a proponent of using one's head while playing backgammon. That advice will never go out of style! [..] You could do a lot worse than reading Barclay Cooke." – Chuck Bower, rec.games.backgammon, August 1998