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BGonline.org Forums
Cube on 64/1
Posted By: Colin Owen In Response To: Cube on 64/1 (Barry Silliman)
Date: Friday, 6 February 2015, at 2:01 a.m.
Barry, I would be fine if bg was regarded as a full on Mind Sport by its participants:
Your opponent makes an illegal play in your favour, you condone it, and he accepts the natural consequences of his carelessness or aberration without question, knowing that the rule benefits all honest players in the long term, and also that he'll be more careful in future.
He rolls just before you were about to lift your dice, in a no contact situation, and where your move was forced - and is grateful that you punished his impatience and indiscipline with making him take back that perfecta: he won't do that again in a hurry.
Carelessly, he brushes a die when reaching for a chequer, flicking it onto a less desirable number. Graciously, he accepts without question your right - and indeed obligation in a game where one is expected to make one's best effort - to count that as the roll instead. He will be far less likely to violate the dice again.
He pauses to consider an initial double. Both players are very short on time after a long and complex match. Deciding to cube, he reaches for it but can't immediately locate the 2. Understandably panicking, knowing his reserve was down to 2 seconds, he finally locates it, plants it down, and slaps his clock - just after the red lights and beepers come on. Disappointed, he nonetheless accepts his lack of spatial awareness and coolness under pressure contributed to his eventual demise, offering his hand in congratulation.
Well, our game isn't like that, of course. We tend to like to be easier on each other - whether or not it really benefits us all in the end. Further, there are players that will try to make us feel guilty for exercising any prerogatives we may have, and accuse us of pettiness if we point out their illegalities. I certainly always felt, in the days before Legal Plays, that life was just simpler if - on the rare occasions that an opponents illegal play benefited oneself - you just pointed it out to them and made them play it again. My recollection is that, before too long, this is exactly what I did. But I would nonetheless be very happy playing in the hypothetical environment I described!
It's a minor point of principle, but from minor points bigger ones can logically follow. Therefore, if opponent wants the already properly centred cube to have the 2 - not 64 or 1 - uppermost, or for the 2 to be showing at the front where both can see it, and/or if he insists that you swap the cube on your board for his own 'directional arrow' one (Bob) or one where the numbers follow on from the top (Art) or indeed underneath, then we should surely let him.
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