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BGonline.org Forums
Here's a dilemma if playing legal moves
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Here's a dilemma if playing legal moves (Timothy Chow)
Date: Monday, 22 April 2013, at 5:56 a.m.
I think we are getting a little carried away with this calcutta partners stuff. I totally agree with Jeb and others who say that I won't change my ethics or attitudes out of obligation to them, but I do believe there is an "expected" norm of behavior that everyone is entitled to assume is the case for anyone who enters the tournament. And that norm of behavior is pretty explicit in the rules.
The rules state that the players should try to win, and that they do not have the right to change the rules on their own. So when you don't play legal moves, if your opponent makes a bonehead mistake, you are not changing the rules when you require him to make it legal, but you are violating your obligation to play to win. If playing to win means letting your opponent be punished for his own stupid mistakes and any of his violations of the rules (like letting his clock run out, coming late and receiving a penalty point, or any other violation or mistake that is penalized), then you should not let him correct a mistaken play that is in your favor.
Again, playing legal moves eliminates a lot of these problems. Certainly not all, as a player may have a play where he clearly wants to hit you but can also play the move without the hit, and he forgets to pick up the checker. Whether legal moves or not, the player should suffer the consequences of his error and the other play should not decide to "be a nice guy" and let him have the hit.
This idea of being a nice guy sounds real nice, but it destroys the integrity of the rules and the tournament and blurs the lines on all the rules as once you cross the line there is no way to determine where to draw the line on any infraction.
Yes, I do believe, if I buy someone in the calcutta, I have every right to expect that they will play by the rules and expect their opponents to do the same. And yes, even if there is no calcutta, I expect everyone in the tournament to live by the rules. And if there is a rule I don't like, too bad...I have to live with it, just as I have had to live with illegal moves and several other rules I think are poorly written or even wrong. You can't please everyone...especially me!
But at the same time, when we have a rule that we generally all agree is not a good rule, and the overwhelming majority of knowledgeable players prefer a rule change, and most of the world is coming around to that rule change, I think it's time for the ABT and any others still using illegal moves (and a few other very poor rules that I will not go in to here) to make a change. And if the ABT won't do it, then I will continue to appeal to individual ABT directors to change this and other rules which have consistently caused ethical and other problems over the years. There are simple, clear solutions. Why not accept them? Is it because people simply don't like change, even if change is better? Is it because change has to come from within, not from the players or the public opinion? What does it take?
Do I sound a little impatient? I'm sorry, I have been making this case, publicly and privately, for about 22 years. I don't think I can be accused of being impatient.
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