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Monitors

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Saturday, 8 December 2012, at 5:47 p.m.

In Response To: Monitors (Tom Keith)

We obviously disagree. I believe the TD can and should delegate his authority to a qualified staff member, and since that person actually observed what happened he can make a better decision than a third party who is getting the situation second-hand. As I said, I have been in this role before and had no problem determining if a player rolled fairly, or picked up his dice (or appeared to, which amounts to the same thing), or if he reached for the cube and indicated that he might double (which amounts to giving the cube), etc. Also, the more authority the monitor has, the less chance that he will have to use that authority...the players know they will not be able to get away with questionable actions.

But even if you and I cannot agree on what powers to give a monitor, can we agree that every situation (and monitor) is different and we must leave this up to the tournament director to decide? Or do you believe the rules should limit what authority the TD can give a monitor? If you do, then we have a problem with the entire rules of backgammon, as the TD is allowed to override ANY RULE if he believes it is in the interest of fair play.

Now I am sure some people will say, "What if a tournament director turns out to be really terrible and unfair and makes horrible rulings?"

First, we simply have to hope that doesn't happen, but we can be sure that if a TD is a poor TD for any reason, his tournament attendance will suffer, but also, if it can be shown that a TD is really incompetent or poor in applying the rules, that is where the players and possibly an association of Federation (which is nothing more than a gathering of the players) can take a stance or recommend action or sanctions.

Fortunately, though I absolutely have seen some terrific, experienced tournament directors make some very poor rulings, overall most TD's that I know are fair and reasonable and poor or wrong rulings are an exception.

So, leave it up to the TD to determine the limits of the monitor.

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