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A better clock for backgammon

Posted By: Kevin Finch
Date: Saturday, 14 March 2015, at 7:11 p.m.

In Response To: A better clock for backgammon (Phil Simborg)

This is a good idea.

I am new to tournament backgammon, so when I decided to enter my first tournament where clocks would be used (last September's Capital Classic) I thought a little preparation would be in order. A couple of months before the tournament I decided to get a feel for things by enabling the clock feature in XG. For some reason (I guess on the general theory that money games are more straightforward than matches) I decided to play clocked money games first.

This was a scary introduction to clocks. I found that the 2 minute limit kicks in a lot more forcefully for money games than it does for matches. There were many games where I wound up playing speed gammon or simply ran out of time. When I switched to clocked match play I always finished comfortably with time left. This is no doubt due to the fact that in matches there are the inevitable quick double and out games, the excess time for which is essentially banked for the later games. The lack of that is felt when playing money games.

Of course, some of this is certainly due to my being new to the clock and a bit nervous about it (and I am not in the same league as Phil or Mochy to begin with) but I still think it will be a factor, particularly for complicated games.

Messages In This Thread

• A better clock for backgammon
  Phil Simborg -- Monday, 9 March 2015, at 9:56 p.m.
  • A better clock for backgammon
    Omar Shah -- Monday, 9 March 2015, at 11:13 p.m.
    • A better clock for backgammon
      Jason Lee -- Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 12:31 a.m.
  • A better clock for backgammon
    Bob Koca -- Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 3:42 a.m.
  • A better clock for backgammon
    Tom Keith -- Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 12:52 p.m.
    • A better clock for backgammon
      Colin Owen -- Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 4:47 p.m.
      • A better clock for backgammon
        Phil Simborg -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 2:58 a.m.
        • A better clock for backgammon
          Colin Owen -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 3:28 a.m.
          • A better clock for backgammon
            Chris Yep -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 6:40 a.m.
      • A better clock for backgammon
        Chris Yep -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 6:31 a.m.
        • A better clock for backgammon
          Colin Owen -- Thursday, 12 March 2015, at 4:53 a.m.
          • A better clock for backgammon
            Chris Yep -- Friday, 13 March 2015, at 7:06 a.m.
      • A better clock for backgammon
        Tom Keith -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 1:06 p.m.
        • A better clock for backgammon
          Tom Keith -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 1:10 p.m.
        • A better clock for backgammon
          Colin Owen -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 2:16 p.m.
  • Is this how it works?
    Chuck Bower -- Tuesday, 10 March 2015, at 5:19 p.m.
    • Is this how it works?
      Chris Yep -- Wednesday, 11 March 2015, at 5:22 a.m.
  • A better clock for backgammon
    Kevin Finch -- Saturday, 14 March 2015, at 7:11 p.m.