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BGonline.org Forums
Nactation – Why is it called “Glasses?”
Posted By: Taper_Mike In Response To: OLM 20140614A The Prime Factors (Steve Mellen)
Date: Sunday, 15 June 2014, at 3:37 a.m.
Privately, I am convinced that much of Nactation involves simply making terms up.
And, of course, you are right!
Have you ever looked at a map and wondered, “Why did they call it Washington. That does not look anything like him!“ You may have asked the same question when looking at the stars. “Ursa major? I don’t get it. That doesn’t look like a bear to me at all.” The answer is simple. Those are names and nothing more. Any other name would have been just as good, but those are the names given to us by historical accident.
The same is true of Nactation. “Glasses” is a name that does not mean anything. The only reason is was chosen is help in memorizing the letters assigned to certain moves made with a roll of doublets. Glasses is part of the phrase Field Glasses Magnify Yosemite. The letters F, G, M, and Y are Nactation families used when a roll of doublets is played to destinations in three different areas of the board. Once you get the hang of it, knowing this phrase makes it easy to figure out what letter goes with what move.
There are four main board areas. Running moves occur on the far side (to destinations between the 24pt and 13pt). Moves that play down land in the outer board. Plays that jump over the bar move checkers from the outer board to the inner board. And inside moves are made entirely within the inner board. The four areas are sometimes designated as a group, namely, Run:Down:Jump:Inside. That is convenient because you can use that notation to specify where checkers are moved. In the G (Glasses) family, for instance, Run:Down:Jump:Inside = 1:2:0:1. In the underlined G (Glasses) family, Run:Down:Jump:Inside = 1:2:1:0.
The mneumonic Field Glasses Magnify Yosemite is part of a system that makes it easy to determine what family to use, and also when to use an underline. The whole thing is described in Section 16 of the Nactation Tutorial.
The remarkable thing is that it works! Under the rules for doublets that were used prior to the release of the new tutorial, I generally had to look up the correct Nactation for moves made with doublets. Under the new system, that is gone. For some time now, I have been nactating even the most difficult doublets without any assistance from the book.
Mike
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