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Playing to the wrong match length

Posted By: Tom Keith
Date: Saturday, 9 February 2013, at 4:01 p.m.

In Response To: Interesting ruling in San Antonio... (Justin N.)

prior to starting the match, both players agreed that their match was to be played to 9-points, although neither actually confirmed it beforehand with the Director or the draw sheet where the official match length was visibly posted. The match was completed, both players shook hands, and both went up to the podium to report their result. At this point, Player A (the loser) notices that the draw sheet states the match length for that round was to be 7-points instead of nine. He also states that he was the first to reach 7-points (the actual score at that moment was 2a-4a), but that he never scored another point resulting in Player B being the winner of the 9-point match.

This is a common enough occurrence (players playing to the wrong match length) that it would be nice to have clear guidelines on how to handle the various situations that can arise. (But this may be easier said than done.)

The most direct U.S. Tournament rule that applies to this situation is Rule 4.9, which contains this sentence:

  • Players are responsible for playing to the posted match length. The first player to reach the posted match length is the winner.

This is presumably the rule that Player A cited in support of his contention that he should be declared the winner. He was the first player to reach the posted match length of 7.

But is it as easy as that? At a certain point you have to accept that even a falsely-arrived-at result is the one which should be used. (Imagine a player two weeks after the tournament phoning up the Director to inform him that his match in the second round was played to the wrong length and that the result should be overturned. The Director might cite rule 1.1 as reason not to apply rule 4.9 in that case.)

  • Rule 1.1. The Tournament Rules and Procedures cannot and should not regulate all possible situations that may arise during a match. No set of rules should deprive the Director of his freedom of judgment or prevent him from finding the solution dictated by fairness and compatible with the circumstances of a particular case.

It is easy to see why the tournament committee was split in its decision.

So at what point should a match result become final? Several possibilities come to mind.

  1. When the last checker is borne off in what both players understand at the time is their last game.
  2. When the players shake hands, both believing the match is over.
  3. When the result of the match is reported to the tournament officials.
  4. When the result is reported and duly recorded by the officials.
  5. When the next match begins.

My suggestion would be to use #2 above (when the players shake hands). At this point both players believe the match is over and they agree on who the winner is and who the loser is. Psychologically they have accepted the result. And as a practical matter it may not be easy to rewind a result later than this. If the loser has no more matches to play, he might just leave, deciding to go home or go out to dinner, not bothering to accompany the winner to report the score.

I don't believe the following sentence from Rule 4.9 applies here.

  • Neither matches nor games may be canceled, replayed or settled.

When the players shook hands, they honestly believed the match was over. They were not agreeing to settle for a different result.

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