| |
BGonline.org Forums
Rules/Ethics Question from Novi
Posted By: Steve Mellen
Date: Friday, 15 July 2011, at 2:47 p.m.
It was a real pleasure to see a number of my backgammon friends and colleagues at the recent Novi tournament. It was likewise a pleasure to see and play a match against Jason Lee, whom I have long known from these forums. During our match, a funny situation came up that I think is worthy of discussion.
As I recall, I was trailing the match -1, -3 post-Crawford, with the cube on Jason's side. I was bearing off in a no-contact position, while Jason needed to bring home a number of checkers over the next several rolls to save the gammon. Let's say it was roughly 50/50 for him to save the gammon - I don't think the exact position matters, as long as we accept that it was unclear whether it would turn out to be a gammon or a single game.
At this moment, Jason experienced a brief bout of confusion and extended his hand to concede the match, apparently thinking that it didn't matter whether he saved the gammon or not. Given the score, it of course mattered quite a bit. I reacted with surprise, he realized his mistake, and we played the match to completion. So while there was no actual dispute, there was some discussion afterwards regarding other scenarios that might have played out, and I thought people might find it worthy of discussion.
I have some thoughts on these issues, but I'll simply pose the questions for now to see what others think.
(1) If I had accepted Jason's resignation, would the match be over? What if he realized his mistake immediately afterwards? What if he realized his mistake after we had packed up the board, or after the result had been reported?
(2) As an ethical matter, was I obligated to point out his mistake?
(3) If some people find the ethical question too easy, here is a similar situation that comes up quite a bit. Often a player will concede the game or the match when he still has a miniscule chance to win or save the gammon (he rolls 6-6 three times while you roll 2-1 twice, or whatever). Maybe he realizes he has a tiny chance and just doesn't care, or maybe he doesn't realize it. Is it wrong to accept his resignation if you see that he still has a mathematical chance? Should you point out to him that he still has a chance before you accept?
I am interested to hear what the community thinks about these issues.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.