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BGonline.org Forums
Rules
Posted By: joe freedman
Date: Monday, 9 November 2009, at 10:36 p.m.
A belated comment on the "ethics" discussion -- the rules on illegal plays have been controversial for at least the past 30 years, and I have seen them applied (or not applied) in almost every conceivable manner.
There seem to be two issues: what the rules should be, and what discretion should the director have? Personally, I think the rule that illegal plays stand at the option of the opponent is too draconian and lends itself to sharp practice. Comparisons to professional sports are inapt, as BG is a game (mostly) of amateurs. Also, except for football, in which penalties may be declined, I'm not familiar with any sport which allows the opponent to decide if an illegal action should be penalized.
It might be useful to distinguish among illegal plays -- maybe a play based on misread dice should be allowed stand at opponent's option. But "plays" that could never be legal, such as putting your own checker on the bar or "bearing off" an opponent's checker, or bearing off 5 checkers, should never be allowed to stand. [This is similar to "social" golf -- most people would not penalize an opponent for inadvertently hitting the wrong ball.] The main problem I see is assuring that such plays will be corrected. Allowing kibitzers to comment would help, but carries a possibility of bias. But at a minimum, the player making the error should be allowed to correct it anytime before he rolls the dice for his next turn.
As for process, if we can vote on the Top 30 players, etc., why can't "the people" vote on the Rules? I think it's fine for directors to be able to exercise some judgment in ambiguous situations, but not to the extent of countermanding clearly articulated rules.
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