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Illegal Plays

Posted By: Taper_Mike
Date: Wednesday, 30 March 2016, at 9:16 p.m.

In Response To: Illegal Plays (Dmitriy Obukhov)

I like "legal-moves-only."

Under LMO, there are only two ways a cheater can cheat.

First, he might make an illegal move that you do not notice. But you will notice the overwhelming majority of his illegal moves. Thus, there will be a pattern of illegal moves that occurs most of the time. The EuBGF rules, as described by Rick Janowski, handle this perfectly. A TD can punish a pattern of illegal moves.

Second, when it is to his advantage, a cheater may choose to overlook an illegal move that you make. There is not much to be done about this. This is, however, very rare. For this to happen, you have to make an illegal play in the first place. Then, your opponent has to size up the error without tipping his hand that he is cheating. If he pauses too long before cubing or rolling, or fails to maintain a normal demeanor, he will give himself away.

For matches that are recorded, the "oversight" of a cheater will be discovered. A player guilty of a significant number of such oversights will soon become the subject of extra scrutiny. If that scrutiny turns into suspicion, tournament directors may begin monitoring the matches of such a player.

Phil Simborg has explained well many of the ways that a cheater can cheat. The method described above works under LMO; other methods work when LMO is not the rule. Some work under either rule set. On balance, I believe the harm done by potential cheating under LMO is less than the harm done by the draconian punishments imposed on honest players when LMO is not the rule.

Let's not forget that there is no punishment large enough to prevent illegal moves from occurring. They would happen even if the penalty were death! More than with other games, misplays seem to be built into the structure of backgammon.

I say, let's fix the mistakes, and get on with game.

Mike

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