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A better clock for backgammon

Posted By: Colin Owen
Date: Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 4:47 p.m.

In Response To: A better clock for backgammon (Tom Keith)

When I first learned of delay settings for bg, a decade or so ago, I was appalled to discover that it made no difference whether you used that delay or not; it was not aggregable.

In more recent years, I have realised that this setting (Bronstein, US Delay) is actually best for our game - as long as the setting is not too high. To have any kind of Fischer style setting merely encourages players to skimp on shaking and rolling the dice, and to move pieces in a slapdash manner, not to mention picking up a seemingly cocked die before it actually comes to rest. (Yes, the rules cover both instances, and it could leave the offending player disadvantaged after a ruling, but many will say or do nothing, and nobody wants to have the experience in the first place.) It is true, but to a lesser extent, of standard delay, as we may still be able to complete a rerolled number within the delay. Further disadvantages of Fischer Delay occur around the opening roll, on pressing the clocks again after an illegal play, and the fact that a player's bank is increased when he is closed out (and may not have cube access either).

I was a bit confused about the new setting that Phil announced that he and Mochy would be employing. Was the 3 sec add on per move in addition to a standard delay of some kind? I guessed that it would be a Chronos clock that would be used for this, if so. I now suspect that they are employing simply a time bank for each game plus the 3 sec increment only. Would be interesting to know.

Yes, players can dig themselves out of time trouble with any kind of Fischer type delay setting, which your proposal (retaining half of unused delay) certainly is. But they got themselves in that trouble in the first place! Having a reasonable delay, even if not aggregable, is enough to survive for many, many more moves to come - as we have seen both players do in a recent match (involving Mochy).

Having a 2 minute per point time bank, which is easy for TD's to apply, even when imposing a clock during a match, surely is simple enough?

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