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Phil Simborg, write me some new rules!
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Phil Simborg, write me some new rules! (Rich Munitz)
Date: Saturday, 14 May 2011, at 3:44 a.m.
I don't care whether we have legal moves or not. I happen to prefer legal moves for only one reason: the current rule is not practical to apply.
There are many rules I would love to change and will not address for all of the reasons Rich stated....it is not a matter of whether or not I like the rule or not...my goal is to provide clarity for the rules that we have.
The problem with the current, illegal move option rule, and a couple of others, it that over the board, it is extremely difficult to enforce. Why? Let's say my opponent rolls a 6-3 and plays a 6-4. In order for me to have the option of allowing the illegal move to stand, or make him play the move legally, I have to wait until he picks up the dice. Often, the reason he played 6-4 was because that is what he thought he rolled. So if I wait for him to pick up the dice, it is too late...we have a problem--he thought he rolled 6-4 and I saw 6-3. So I must decide BEFORE he picks up the dice, in possibly a split-second, if I want him to move legally. My problem, again, is not which rule I prefer, but which rule is easiest to use without causing conflicts and ambiguity.
I have a similar problem with "capricious" use of the cube, and other rules that are extremely gray and that I have seen interpreted a variety of ways by different tournament directors.
There isn't a person here that doesn't have some opinion on some rule, and I am convinced that it would be impossible to produce a set of rules that everyone will like--even if we don't change anything but simply provide a guide defining it more clearly, there will be many who will not like the way we have defined or clarified it. Some tournament directors disagree on the interpretation and appropriate penalties for several of the rules as they now stand.
My goal is NOT to try to please everyone, but it is to have everyone agree that there is little doubt about the interpretation and application of the rules that we have, and that may mean revising or even changing a couple of rules that are too ambiguous or difficult to apply fairly over the board. And it absolutely means that we need to provide some clear guidelines for what constitutes "fair play" and "good sportsmanship" so we aren't constantly faced with these dilemmas about how fair or nice to be to our opponents and how much we should try to win as opposed to being friendly, and we will also add some clear guidelines for the tournament directors relative to their obligation to seeing that fairness prevails (it's one thing to say that is the goal, but it is another to offer some clear-cut examples to show how that goal can more consistently be reached).
Once the guide is complete, associations and individuals are free to pick it apart, offer ideas for changes and improvements, or even reject major parts of the document, but I ask you to reserve judgment on what should or should not be done until you see what the final document looks like, how it reads, and possibly, even if you don't like a rule or two, you might agree that we finally have something that virtually every other sport and game in the world has: a definitive set of rules that is clear and will result in fewer disputes, and therefore a more pleasant venue for competition.
By the way, don't expect to see anything for at least a couple of months...this is not a small undertaking but I have, in Jeb and Chuck, an excellent team to accomplish this task. There are many more who are highly qualified, but each additional person, in my opinion, will make the task even more difficult to complete in a timely manner.
Note, for the benefit of those who do not know why I have undertaken this task...it's because I have done it 3 times previously for 2 other sports (handball and racquetball) and for a the National Assn. of Realtors where I produced a very comprehensive standards of practice (rules) for the U.S. which have been primarily unchanged for the past 20 years. I know this can and should be done, and I welcome the invitation to finally prepare it for an organization that has the intelligence and foresight to see the need for a truly complete and unambiguous set of rules. Thank you, Michael, for this assignment. You have made no commitment on behalf of BIBA to accept the product of our efforts, and you may well want to make revisions, but my team and I are willing to take on this heavy task because we are confident that reasonable, intelligent people will clearly see the benefits of having a greatly improved set of rules and procedures for tournament backgammon.
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