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Backgammon Ethics Questions ROLLOUT

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Tuesday, 1 November 2011, at 7:22 p.m.

In Response To: Backgammon Ethics Questions ROLLOUT (Marv Porten)

Re (A), I'd actually prefer that my opponents, no matter how courteous and honorable they intend to be, kindly refrain from telling me that my pipcount, play choice or cube action was incorrect. The more courteous action, as I see it, is usually to shut up and play. Marv draws an ethical line between taking advantage of an opponent's misplays and taking advantage of an opponent's (possible) miscounts of pips. I don't draw a line there. The opponent may or may not have miscounted. I'll use the information his utterance gave me at my own risk. Correct him if you want to -- I might also, if the spirit moves me -- but I see no ethical problem here. For those that do, I wonder: if he had been calculating out loud and wrongly about his take point at a certain match score, should I also ("optionally") be correcting his match point calculations? Or just his pipcounts?

Re (B), if you double and end your turn, either by hitting your clock or putting the cube in the center of the board, or move and end your turn, either by hitting your clock or picking up the dice, your turn is over. USBG Rule 5.4 covers cube handling. It never occurred to me that Rule 5.4 lacked several "That action ends your turn"'s inserted in it. USBG tournament rules incorporate "the commonly accepted rules of backgammon." Under these, backgammon is a turn-based game. In turn you may double, take or drop, or roll and move. That's all you can do; when your turn is over, it's the other player's turn, and that's all he can do. You can't pass your turn, or allow a do-over. The only exception is covered by Rule 4.8. You may condone or require a replay of an illegal move. Under no rule may you allow a replay of a legal move or cube action.

Re (C), I agree with Marv's first sentence -- and I have never had an opponent who intentionally misled me in this way -- but not the second, since I see nothing discourteous, dishonorable, unchivalrous, or whatever gentlemanly means today, in using to my advantage knowledge of the possibility that my opponent can't accurately count pips.

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