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BGonline.org Forums
Some Reflections for You to Consider Please, Michel
Posted By: Albert Steg In Response To: Some Reflections for You to Consider Please, Michel (Florin Popa)
Date: Thursday, 9 June 2016, at 4:38 p.m.
There are several differences between clock behavior in Chess and Backgammon, and the current situation, in which a player is closed out and the other plays repeatedly until a point is opened is one major example. I have to admit, that at the very same tournament in Chicago, even after seeing this controversy play out, I forgot to hit my clock after closing out an opponent in two different matches (in one, my opponent alerted me to it, in the other I caught it myself -- but in both cases I had well over 10:00 in my bank.
I've only been traveling to tournaments outside Boston for about 18 months, participating in maybe 8 such gatherings. I guess I've played about a dozen matches with a clock in that time -- a tiny, tiny fraction of the total number of games I've played, mostly in chouettes. So I'm neither an absolute noob nor a seasoned veteran. I find it it can be quite difficult to switch back and forth between clocked tournament games and unlocked chouette play -- and close-out situations pose a particularly easy situation in which to revert to unlocked behavior. If I went to my first tournament and lost on this sort of 'technicality' I probably would have been annoyed enough -- both with myself and my opponent and the tournament community -- that I might not have pursued tournament play any further.
In chess, there is also no secondary action -- picking up and rolling dice -- that separates the turns between players. I am not access player, but I would think the smart snapping of the plunger becomes a wholly integral and habitual part of making a move. In backgammon, picking up and rolling dice serve a similar roll in money play -- so in clocked tournament play, there is an extra step interposed that is not part of the usual routine. I don't find it surprising in the least that people often lapse into money-style play in this situation.
I don't know that appealing to chess practice is very useful in adjudging problematic clock behavior in backgammon.
I think if a player finds he must repeatedly correct / help out his less adroit opponent to the point of distraction, he should be able to appeal to the TD to have a third person monitor the match on behalf of his opponent or be absolved for the rest of that match from tending to his opponent's flawed technique.
Perhaps there should be some consequence for the faulty player -- just as there should be if he repeatedly makes incorrect checker plays?
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