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Touch Move rule, dangers

Posted By: Barry Silliman
Date: Friday, 2 September 2011, at 6:02 p.m.

In Response To: Touch Move rule, dangers (leobueno)

Is it a touch rule that you want, or is it a rule against distracting checker shuffling?

Would the requirement that checkers being considered be clearly offset from existing checkers on a point, or placed near the tip of an empty point, and clearly returned to their original point before an alternate move is to be played or considered, satisfy your desire to reduce checker shuffling?

For the sake of argument, let's assume a rule as described in the previous paragraph is in place. If you were playing with clocks, would you at all mind if your opponent used as much time as he wanted to consider different moves? And if you aren't playing with clocks, then whatever calculations you were performing that you lost due to the distraction, why not simply start them over when it is your turn?

I see you played in the novice division in Florida, and so I'm almost certain that your opponent's distracting checker shuffling was probably just a function of his unfamiliarity with the game, and not meant to "game" you or be malicious- I don't think there are that many sharks swimming in the novice pool on the ABT.

I'm not saying you won't see some shuffling at the higher levels, but it isn't that common and I think some modifications such as I've proposed in the 2nd paragraph here, and which I and others have made elsewhere, would reduce the concern dramatically- and it isn't even really a new rule in my opinion. In a sense it is just a more precise description of what it means to "move the checkers clearly", which is already in the rules.

I agree with you that the popularity of backgammon, at least as measured by ABT tournament attendance, is hurting right now in the U.S., but I can think of several factors that probably have more to do with this than the lack of a touch move rule. I seriously doubt that there is a pool of young players just sitting on the sidelines, ready to take up the game and become regular ABT, or even club, players, if only a touch move rule were adopted.

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