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BGonline.org Forums
any open player---Best post ever!
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: any open player---Best post ever! (Rich Munitz)
Date: Saturday, 26 August 2017, at 3:55 p.m.
Standard or non-standard is a very reasonable debate. Certainly there are rules that would greatly affect the game and cause major problems if individual tournaments decided to change them (the Crawford Rule, when you can double, not allowing beavers in match play, and many more).
Then we have rules that do not really change the game at all, like whether you use a baffle box, or headphones, or taking pictures.
Then we have rules that clearly do change the game, and people do disagree about them and we simply have to live with them one way or another. Like Legal or non-legal moves; allowing recording and streaming or not; requiring clocks or not. These decisions do have an affect on the game that is important and simply must be set one way or another and no matter which way we go, some people will be unhappy. Whether to set an international standard for all of these or allow individual tournaments to decide is a major area for disagreement.
And then there are new ideas and innovations which may or may not turn out to be good for the game or acceptable in time that many would like to try out or experiment with (like dice on the checkers, electronic dice particularly for streamed matches, playing on computers or tables instead of a board, changing clock settings and rules, changing the Crawford rule to kick in at 2away/2away, playing longer matches or playing series of shorter matches to determine winners; playing swiss or other formats; etc. etc. Some are against even trying or experimenting with any of these in main events, and others believe it is good for the game to try some new things or test them or use them for special situations.
I have my opinions on all of the above, but I certainly can't say I am sure, in each case, what is best for the game, as even if I think a particular rule is good for the game, if it bothers too many others and too many others get upset because they don't like the rule or just don't like change, maybe the change isn't worth it.
But I do know this. Any rules we have or make, and any changes we make, are better if they come from a clearly recognized ruling body that represents the entire backgammon community. I respect the USBGF as the representative of the US backgammon players, but I, and the rest of the players, would respect the rules more if the rules were endorsed by the rest of the federations, and I hope you will take that next step soon.
Just as there is confusion and tension and disagreement and hurt feelings that are caused when you leave many of the rules to individual tournament directors, the same is true if every country comes up with their own rules for the game and they are not primarily the same. If you want the players and directors to respect the basic rules of the game and policies relative to changing individual rules at their tournaments, work to set international standards as well.
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