Oswald (Ozzie, Jake) Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time. He also excelled at, and wrote about, other games including backgammon, gin rummy, and poker..
Jacoby was also an expert backgammon player, and in 1972 he was crowned World Backgammon Champion. In 1970, he wrote The Backgammon Book with John R. Crawford, which is considered the first book to deal with backgammon from an analytical viewpoint. The Jacoby Rule, which states that gammons and backgammons count only after the cube has been turned, is named after him.
…Although he did not pursue a career in competitive chess and did not write on the game, he was nevertheless a strong player. When in college, Jacoby beat US chess champion Frank Marshall, and in 1963, in a rapid-transit game, he played a draw with Tigran Petrosian, the then world champion..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Jacoby
It was also in the 1960s that Jacoby dueled the chess world champion Tigran Petrosian at a game of lightning chess. The game was a draw after Petrosian spotted him a knight. Had Jacoby chosen chess rather than bridge for his primary hobby, he certainly would have been one of the world’s best.
http://www.bridgebum.com/oswald_jacoby.php
The Jacoby rule has some influence on both checker play and cube decisions, mostly on checker play.It encourages more aggressive checker play to achieve a gammonish doubling position. The idea (simply put) is that if the strategy works, you double and win four points; if it fails, you pass and lose one, since unless the cube is turned you can’t lose a gammon….
http://www.bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+422
“One Should Always Bear in Mind that in the final bet or bets the psychology of one’s opponents is much more important than any of the direct mathematical probabilities.”
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