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BGonline.org Forums
Clock Irregularities Should Not Be Classed as Illegal Moves
Posted By: Taper_Mike In Response To: Clock Irregularities Should Not Be Classed as Illegal Moves (johnk)
Date: Saturday, 11 June 2016, at 9:11 p.m.
John: I disagree that using legal moves in the Chicago ruling was absurd. It was ambiguous and probably the interpretation of most US players.
Sorry, John. I did say, nor mean to say, this. I am one of those U.S. players who believes that legal-moves-only was intended to disallow the actions Michel took in Chicago. Given the circumstances, I think Rory made a proper ruling. His only mistake was not to form an appeals committee.
John: I agree the rules of backgammon, under legal-moves-only and otherwise, need a new category to handle clock irregularities.
Yes! I believe that "illegal moves" should refer only to what it says, i.e. illegal checker moves. At present, many other irregularities, including clocking errors, have been forced to fit under the "illegal-moves" rule. These are what sometimes create absurd interpretations.
One such error is the one under discussion.
Another occurs when a player who has been on the bar against a closed board, accidentally punches the clock without rolling when a point finally opens. This is a clock irregularity. Before the clock era, this was never described as an illegal move. How could it be? Saying that a player who neither rolled nor moved any checker has illegally moved a checker is, to me, absurd on its face. The original rule regarding illegal moves was never intended to cover this clock irregularity.
Sadly, most tournament directors now regard this sort of irregularity as an illegal move.
I believe, therefore, that backgammon's rules, under legal-moves and otherwise, need to be clarified so that illegal checker moves are treated differently than clock irregularities.
For the record, I am one who strongly favors legal-moves-only.
Determined cheats will try to cheat under any rule set, be it legal-moves-only or otherwise. There are opportunities for a cheat under any rule set. At present, I believe that the small amount of cheating that occurs under legal-moves-only causes less harm to honest players than the arbitrary, and occasionally absurd, rulings that occur under non-LMO.
Backgammon is unique among board games in that illegal moves seem to be built into the game. No one is immune. The best players, and the rest of us, are all guilty. The structure of the game, and the limits of the human mind, guarantee that they will occur. I like legal-moves only because it seems the best way to deal with the problem.
I say, fix the error, penalize no one, and get on with the game. If the clock has already been punched, restart it, and run off the delay before allowing a player to make a correction.
Actually, my position is more nuanced. In a legal-moves-only tournament, I believe that both players should note on their scoresheets any illegal moves that are corrected. If a player becomes concerned that there are too many such corrections, he should have the right to ask the director to intervene. The director should have the right to issue a warning, and thereafter, at his discretion, issue penalties for subsequent illegal moves.
Mike
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