As with most competitive games, backgammon has stresses and strains that test our ability as well as our character. In the beginning, we can deal with winning and losing as an educational process. But when we think that we have some understanding about the game, we begin to measure our ability by only the results.

Winning and losing is a matter of fact. It’s our reaction to the results that is important in determining our future development. If our ego whitewashes the losses, we will rationalize the result rather than look to find the problem. We may also be blinded when we win if we fail to understand what happened and how much chance assisted the victory.

One of the challenges in backgammon is to separate ourselves from the game and treat our ability as a tool that requires maintenance and improvement to take on future competition.