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BGonline.org Forums
DEAD CUBE RULE
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: DEAD CUBE RULE (Bob Koca)
Date: Sunday, 3 September 2017, at 2:37 p.m.
I forgot to address this point. I agree with Bob completely. All the rules are pretty much made by open players, but I don't believe any have the intent of giving an open player an edge over lower players. I think that "accusation" has no merit at all and has nothing to do with any of the rules of the game.
I also agree with Bob...rules that "protect" a player from making a mistake that hurts him helps lower-level players far more than open players.
In fact, I think one of the reasons we have rules like not being able to put your own checker on the bar and not letting someone make an illegal move were largely passed to protect new players.
Many people seem to be worried about having rules that would anger novices and turn them away from tournament play forever because we are so strict and they can't be expected to know all these rules. While I understand that thinking, and I strongly believe we should be extra nice and lenient and welcoming to new players, changing all of our rules that we apply even to professional (open) players for that reason seems very wrong to me.
I can't think of any other sports or games where the players are supposed to help the other player when he does something that hurts him, can you?
Of course it would be poor sportsmanship, and dishonest, not to correct a wrong score. And I agree it would be unfair to not say anything if your opponent's clock is running during a break....because we are not officiated, we have some responsibilities to be honest and fair.
But if my opponent does something stupid, like double when he shouldn't, or forget to pick up a checker he hit, or not take enough checkers off when he could have, why the hell should I have to help him?
I know, many of you will go back to my old posts when I argued that we should play legal moves. I argued this because at the time we were using two sets of dice and it was impossible to impose the non-legal move rule until after he picked up his dice and then you couldn't prove what he rolled. And I argued this because everyone was screaming it was poor sportsmanship to allow a player to put his own checker on the bar or double a dead cube. And if we were going to "protect" our opponents from those mistakes, it was consistent to also "protect" him from an illegal move.
But now that we are all (hopefully) using one set of dice, usually with clocks, I absolutely don't know why I should have to help my opponent play his checkers properly. Or make sure he puts the right checker on the bar. Or picks up a checker he hits. Or doesn't double when he shouldn't. I have enough trouble making sure I follow all the rules and do the right thing...why should I help him?
Now, in chouettes we are still using two sets of dice (I would rather not) so there, again, I am in favor of legal moves. And because we have partners, I understand why it would be "nasty" to lose because your captain put his own checker on the bar.
We had a big fight in our chouette a few years ago that illustrates the point. MCG and I were in the box, and the captain rolled a joker that hit us and won them the game, but before he picked up the hit checker, he picked up his dice, and then he picked up the checker he hit. He didn't have to hit the checker with the move he made, so MCG and I said, sorry, that checker was not hit according to the rules. MCG and I had NO PROBLEM insisting that the checker was not hit because a) that is the rule, and b) if either of us had made that mistake, we would not have asked or expected mercy.
But the other guys went nuts. I won't name names, but one guy, a very experienced, top player, quit the game and said we were terrible sports. Others accused us of all kinds of crap. At my insistance, we compromised and ended up taking 1 point instead of the two or more we would have won (and yes, if he had hit properly we would have lost 2). Even with that compromise, the others still held resentments. Clearly the player meant to pick up the checker but in his excitement just forgot and picked up the dice first.
I think we were very good sports to compromise. Others think we were pricks. Matt and I think some of them were pricks.
This is why we need to have very clear rules, and we should all live up to them. And this is why the concept of helping our opponents must either be very clear that we do it across the board or don't do it at all.
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