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BGonline.org Forums
2019 USBGF Tournament Rules - effective January 2019
Posted By: Rich Munitz
Date: Monday, 10 September 2018, at 6:43 p.m.
The 2019 USBGF Tournament Rules has been adopted by the Board and will take effect in January 2019. See: http://usbgf.org/docs/rules-2019.pdf
In keeping with the USBGF’s commitment to open and inclusive governance, the initial Rules draft proposed for 2019 had been put out for a 30-day public comment period this past June (see: http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=207343). Based upon feedback received during the public comment period, a second round of revision was done, with review by the USBGF Rules Committee, the USBGF Board and by the USBGF’s Tournament Directors Advisory Committee.
A number of good suggestions for clarification were received during the public comment period. The most common request was for a standardization and definition of terminology related to the force of rules. The words “must”, “shall”, “should” and “may” (and their negative forms) now all have specific meanings and are used consistently throughout. They will be defined in the 2019 Ruling Guide, which will be released later this year.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this collaborative process.
The Rules Options document which outlines the allowable ways in which a tournament director may deviate from the standard Rules has been updated to conform to the new 2019 Rules. See: http://usbgf.org/docs/rules-options-2019.pdf
The following option has been added and directors are encouraged to experiment with its usage so that we may all evaluate the implications. Such a rule had been proposed during public comment last year, but while intriguing, the proposal was deferred, being too big a change to consider without more study.
Overtime
Rule: A player automatically loses the match when it is noticed that their reserve time has expired.
Option 1: “Overtime: A player receives 1 minute after an initial clock expiration”.
Option 2: “Overtime: A player receives 2 minutes after an initial clock expiration”.
Tournament Directors are encouraged to experiment with this variation, perhaps in combination with any considered strengthening of clock policy. As a means of protecting against unnoticed clock expirations, particularly for players who are inexperienced with clock play, a player does not lose the match upon an initial clock expiration. Instead, the Tournament Director must be called, and the affected player’s clock shall be reset to reflect the specified overtime reserve of 1 or 2 minutes. A second expiration for that player will lose the match, and the Tournament Director should warn the player accordingly.
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