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BGonline.org Forums
Time controls and error rates
Posted By: Tom Keith In Response To: Paul Magriel in Vegas: Sloppy Technique, Illegal Moves (Timothy Chow)
Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2014, at 2:06 p.m.
There are actually a lot of differences between online and face-to-face tournament play that can affect your error rate besides time controls. Travelling to the tournament, staying in a hotel, and eating restaurant food can take you out of your normal routine. Playing in a large tournament room often has distractions. Learning to roll dice effectively (avoiding cocked dice, satisfying opponent that your rolls are random, and not taking too much time) takes practice. Watching opponent's plays to make sure they are all legal. Watching your own (!) plays to make sure they are all legal.
Time controls are a compromise. If they are too long, the tournament falls behind and players end up playing at 1 or 2 in the morning. I know, for myself, that my error rate goes up a lot when playing late at night.
I'm surprised there has not been much written about time management in backgammon. (Or maybe I've just missed it.) One simple technique is to leave as much time on your clock as your opponent has on his. That way, if you get into time trouble at least you know your opponent will be in time trouble too. But many players never get close to using all there time. Surely these players would do better if they took a little more time. It would be interesting to see a "pacing chart" that showed for each score how much time you should have left to be, say, 90% sure that you won't have to speed up your play as you get near the end of the match.
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