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BGonline.org Forums
Legal Moves or Not
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Legal Moves or Not (Jason Lee)
Date: Sunday, 20 December 2009, at 9:19 p.m.
Jason: I have the same issues you have with these, and many other things people do inappropriately in a match....Bob's comments about the first roll re-roll is also one of my pet peeves. I also hate it when I hit my opponent and they pick up their checker...how do I know they will put it on the bar? What if I choose to hit a different checker? And our hands are colliding because I am reaching for that checker too? (And what about taking away my pleasure of picking up his blot and putting it on the bar????).
What about a player eating over the board during a match? Texting and taking phone calls? Getting up for a drink of water or taking a break in the middle of a game? Talking about a previous move or cube decision with a spectator? What about a set of rules and protocol for spectators? There are many, many things not currently covered in the rules.
I have long advocated that backgammon needs a "guide for tournament play" that goes beyond the rules and more clearly points out the "intent" of the rules, how the rules are to be interpreted, exactly what happens when there is an infraction, player's rights, and also, protocol in areas such as the above.
To try to incorporate all of this into the rules would make the rules too long a laborious for most people to read, but for serious tournament players and directors, this guide would be helpful (I produced similar guides for the sports of Racquetball and Handball including special guides for referees).
With these guides people could not only point out that it is not nice to do some of the things you mentioned (and many others), but they can point to the fact that it is "unacceptable" according to the recommended protocol.
I have been asked to head up the new USBGF Rules and Ethics Committee, and one of my goals will be to produce such a guide. Tournament directors, both locally and in the ABT, will be free to use it and endorse it if they like (or not), but at least something will exist out there to cover these items. Something will exist to better explain what "capricious" means in terms of handling the cube. There will be a written statement as to what should happen if a player doubles in a Crawford game and the other player takes the cube, etc. etc.
While some may not agree with everything in the guide, (we will never get everyone's agreement on every rule and interpretation), having such a guide is better than none. As for myself, there are many rules I don't like, but mostly what I care about is a level playing field...knowing exactly what the rule is and how it is to be interpreted and applied so that I can live up to it myself and expect others to do the same. Currently, as your comments and others have pointed out, we really don't have that.
The many comments on this forum by players who are highly experienced prove that work is needed on the current rules; that a guide is needed as well; and that even very intelligent, experienced people are always going to disagree on what the rules should be. (I don't expect to make a lot of friends doing this, but hopefully, in the long run, people will recognize the benefits of removing as much ambiguity as possible.)
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