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BGonline.org Forums
Fines for Poor Sportsmanship
Posted By: Taper_Mike In Response To: Fines for Poor Sportsmanship (johnk)
Date: Saturday, 28 May 2016, at 11:55 p.m.
If I recall correctly, the player who mistakenly resigned at the Nordic Open later told the tournament director that he shook hands only because he was going to take a break. He claimed that he had not resigned. He made this statement during the interview the director had with him as the director was gathering facts in preparation for his ruling. The director explained in a post here at BGO that part of his ruling included a determination that the player who shook hands had, in fact, intended to resign, and that his contrary statement was not true.
Would this sort of thing also merit a fine under your system?
My own opinion is that directors need to have more leeway. For the most part, I am against complicated rules and mandatory penalties. My notion of legal-moves-only is based on a belief that the overwhelming majority players are honest these days. The nature of backgammon is such that illegal moves are built into the game. I make them. You make them. Everyone makes them. The uneven—and occasionally draconian—penalties that occur in a non-legal-moves tournament cause more harm to honest players than the harm cheaters get away with under legal-moves.
The increasing use of video recording means that the illegal moves that are not corrected during a match, will often be spotted later. I believe this acts as a deterrent to cheating, both under legal-moves and non-legal-moves.
When it comes to illegal moves, I think tournament directors should have the leeway to warn a player who makes too many of them. After that, the director should have the discretionary authority to hand out penalties.
Here is how I see this working:. When an illegal move is corrected, a notation should be entered on the scoresheets of both players. At any time, either player may request the director to issue a warning. If the director chooses to issue a warning, then, at the discretion of the director, a subsequent illegal play could result in a penalty.
I tend to favor clock runoffs and/or penalty points rather than cash fines. If the money ever gets bigger in backgammon, perhaps I would revisit this issue.
It is my hope, however, that few penalties would ever be issued. When an illegal play is spotted, let's just fix it, and get on with game!
Without stating an opinion on the details of the specific infractions we have discussed, I will say that I do think issues of sportsmanship should fall under the discretionary system I am advocating.
Mike
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