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BGonline.org Forums
"Chalk flew up"!
Posted By: phil simborg In Response To: "Chalk flew up"! (Bob Koca)
Date: Thursday, 6 March 2014, at 9:14 p.m.
You are correct Bob. However, here there is an important distinction. I do not believe the NLM rule is confusing. While I don't like it, I believe what is says and what the intent of the rules is, is clear. Opponent makes an error in a checker play, you can and should take advantage of it. He can and should do the same. If you choose not to, yes, you are a nice guy, but you are not doing your best to win within the rules and not playing by the rules intended by the people who make and enforce the rules (assuming they enforce them properly).
I not only believe the rules applying to dead cubes is ambiguous, but I also believe it is not correct to apply the NLM rule to cubes. It says "illegal moves" and doesn't say that also applies to illegal or wrong use of cubes.
Ask ABT directors what they think, and you will get differing opinions. Some believe an illegal cube movement (cubing at crawford) is no different from an illegal move, and some don't. As to whether or not a 2 cube held by a 2-away player is a dead cube or not is not even defined in the ABT rules, so again, it is open to interpretation.
Since I don't want to play backgammon in a manner that takes advantage of a silly mistake, and I don't want the game to play that way, I have chosen to believe that if someone gives a 4 cube when they are 2 away, I have a good reason to tell him to take the cube back, because the rules don't specifically tell me to do otherwise.
In a perfect world, all of these ambiguities would be eliminated. Yes, even with ambiguities eliminated (or virtually eliminated because you really can't cover everything that could happen), there still may well be some rules I don't like, but I can live with some rules I don't like because it is a level playing field and because I will have fun on forums like this trying to convince people to join me on urging the people in charge to improve the rules for the good of the players and the good of the game.
If some won't change, fine. But fortunately we are seeing, all over the world, great improvements in the area. My hat's off to the Dane's which have done a great job on the rules for years. I was hoping, long ago when I was Rules Chairman of the USBGF to get that organization to adopt and recommend a really good set of rules to show the world that it is possible to have things worded better to eliminate most of the problems and ambiguities, but the members of the board at that time didn't want to take a stance on the rules. So we did mange to adopt a fairly nice Standards of Ethical Practice (which was watered down considerably from the way I would have liked it, by the way), and when that was done, there was nothing left for me to do as Chairman of a Rules Committee that was discouraged from making or recommending any rules, so I stepped down and got active in other areas of the organization.
Bottom line, under the current rules, if someone makes a non-legal move against me in a NLM tournament, unless they agreed to play legal moves with me, I feel honor-bound to let his bad move stand rather than correct it. If he doubles when I think it is a dead cube, the rules allow me to be a good sport, and that is the kind of person I choose to be, and I would stop him from doubling. I don't want to win that way. I want to win because I rolled out my ass!
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