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BGonline.org Forums
Rule Change Needed
Posted By: Phil simborg In Response To: Stick is being modest! HOLY COW!! And thanks again Kit. and MCG does it again (Phil Simborg)
Date: Thursday, 16 November 2017, at 3:28 p.m.
Rule change needed.
I know that any time anyone recommends changing the rules of any great game or sport he will immediately become the target for abuse. How can you change a game that has been great for over 5,000 years. Or if it aint broke... or “you must not really love this game if you want to change it.” And also the argument that chaning the rules makes it confusing for beginners and we chase people away. Most get upset simply because they just dont like to see things change.
There have been many great changes to the rules of backgammon that make it a far better game today. I wont bore you with the list. And every other major game and sport has continued to change and refine its rules to make the game better, fairer, more interesting and exciting.
So here goes my rule change proposal and I am fully prepared to take the usual criticism.
I propose that the Crawford Rule should start at 2away/2away and there be no cube for the rest of the match.
The way it is now, with any reasonably skilled players, the cube is turned on the first or second roll and the match is decided on that game—no cube skill involved, no intracacies of going for or protecting for gammons. Here we are at the end of a long match and if the players are close at all in skill the winner will almost always be the player who got the luckiest in that one last game.
Picture the alternative with my proposal. Yes, the match will take longer as there could be three more games instead of one, and yes, thst is, in my opinion, a major negative of my proposal. But dont we want the match to be longer and require a lot more skill at the end of the match? To compensate play an 11 point match instead of 13. Or a 7 point match where we used to play 9.
One thing I can assure you is that the ends of close matches will be more interesting and complex and this rule will favor the better player who will now win more often than before. And that is what most of us who believe that the better player deserves to win more and that this is more of a skill to be respected more if that happens.
Call it the Extended Crawford Rule, and if you are concerned about match length, for the first few years only activate this rule in the semis and finals of the tournament where it is even more important to see that the better player wins.
Okay, fire away. But please remember this: can’t we find a way to disagree without insulting, terrorizing, and vilifying each other just because we disagree? I know many who do not agree with me about Donald Trump, politics, global warming, gun control, religion, and Carter. But i dont hate them or call them names because they disagree—hell, some of those people are in my own family! So be kind and discuss the issues, not the messenger.
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