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BGonline.org Forums
Stick was right
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Stick was right (neilkaz)
Date: Saturday, 9 March 2013, at 3:39 a.m.
Recently, for various reasons, I have been thinking about what may have gone wrong with backgammon. If you are of the view that backgammon is better than ever then this discussion may seem off point. But I think for players who started years ago the game has lost some of its charm. There are many reasons, but the clock issue highlights one of them.
I am not advocating a particular set of rules. I have played in tournaments without clocks, and played in tournaments with clocks. I have requested a clock for some opponents when the option was available, and suffered through many matches without a clock, playing people of all skill levels who played very slowly. In many cases the opponents, some quite expert, who were the worst offenders, were very obviously wasting time. For instance counting the pips, and then computing the match equities, and all the ramifications for 4- and possibly 8-games, in a race, for three or more consecutive moves, is not an example of "expertise." The longest single decision I ever witnessed was an obvious cube decision. Even the intermediates knew it was a take, but in a worst case scenario the taker would lose a redoubled gammon and wind up down 15-3 to 17. It took him 55 minutes to summon up the balls to take.
No, what occurred to me was this. In Japan clocks are taken for granted, and I have seen children younger than my daughter and oldsters older than ... Never mind; old enough! They are comfortable with clocks because it is part of the "game." In America there are many players who are not comfortable with clocks, and it is not only because clocks represent a change. I think many of the players who took up the game in 1975, if they walked into a tournament for the very first time today, would be put off, and clocks would be part of it.
I put the word "game" in quotes above. The Japanese have found a way to keep backgammon a game, while accepting all the technical, nerdy aspects that have accrued like barnacles over the past two decades. A backgammon tournament years ago was many things: social occasion; a chance to do some usually harmless gambling in a socially acceptable environment; a chance to test your skills at a level within your own comfort zone. By that last, I mean that a patzer with the cash and the willingness could play in an open event with experts, and not be reminded of the inadequacy of his "PR." Today that patzer must feel the equivalent of small penis syndrome.
Once again, I am not pushing for change, or insisting the clock be turned back. The game has changed; we players provide the current ethos; so be it. The players who might be driven off probably aren't poking their head in the door of the tournament room anyway, they are doing other things. Those advocating a rewind in time are mistaken, as they ought to be looking to the needs of players today, and thinking about the players of tomorrow, not as they would wish them to be, but as they probably will be.
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