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Backgammon psychology

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Sunday, 16 October 2011, at 3:28 a.m.

In Response To: Backgammon psychology (Nir Grinberg)

There are clearly two schools of thought about using gamesmanship when playing against opponents. One is that any actions or statements you make that are intended to mislead, intimidate, or distract your opponent is at the very least unsportsmanlike, and possibly unethical or even illegal depending on the degree of what is said and done. The other school of thought is that anything you do that is not specifically prohibited by the rules is acceptable and part of the game, and if you can fool or mislead your opponent, all the more power to you.

The problem is, like all ethics, much of this is a gray area, and what one person may think is simple psychology and gamesmanship, another might find quite offensive. We simply have no clear guidelines for most types of gamesmanship to give us the answer.

Example: if I double in a situation I know is not a double, but I whisper under my breath: "This might be too good, but what the heck." And then I turn the cube and reach for the score sheet and start to score it as if there is no double the opponent will pass...am I using gamesmanship, or am I intentionally misleading my opponent and trying to intimidate him into a bad pass? Again, there are no clear guidelines about this, and many other things you might to do gain an edge on your opponent.

In doubles, partners often "lie" to each other out loud and say things with their fingers crossed in hopes of misleading the opponents. This seems to be acceptable gamesmanship in most places. How is this difference than lying out loud when you are talking to yourself?

So while there has been much written on the subject, one reason that there are not a lot of conclusions about what might be done in the way of intimidation and gamesmanship is that none of us can be sure where to draw the line ethically.

(If only everyone would live by my standards, this would be a better world, however, I'm not sure at all myself where to draw the line, so I only use excessive gamesmanship when I am playing a Republican.)

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