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BGonline.org Forums
Touch Move rule, dangers
Posted By: leobueno In Response To: Touch Move rule, dangers (Jason Lee)
Date: Friday, 2 September 2011, at 4:37 p.m.
Not having a touch rule makes the game less enjoyable.
I have been playing very mediocre backgammon on and off for several years and for no or trivial stakes. The bulk of my play was online or against robots, where I did not have to monitor my opponents. I have recently discovered how taxing it is to have to play cop to the checker-shufflers when it matters.
A couple of weeks ago I played my first tournament (Fort Lauderdale). It quickly became obvious that having to monitor my opponents' shuffling meant that I had to spend my time, energy and effort doing something that detracted from my enjoyment of the game. I could neither relax nor focus on my game plan during my opponents' moves because I had to pay attention to their manhandling checkers.
Chiva and his crew did a fine job with that tournament. I enjoyed the experience. However, I would have enjoyed it even more if we had played touch.
At least in the US, I sense that Backgammon is slowly dying. I noted that in Fort Lauderdale the overwhelming majority of players were middle-aged geezers like me or older. As I recall, there were only 3 players under 21 (Steven, Max and Dillon). Chiva can correct me if I am wrong, but I bet it won't be my much.
I agree with others who think that *some* new players will be discouraged by not having a touch rule. The game is complex enough as it is. Why burden new players with not only having to learn the game and refine their skills, but with also wasting energy time and effort keeping an eye on checker-shuffling opponents?
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