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Backgammon clock rules - introduce standard, rapid and blitz?

Posted By: Bill Riles
Date: Wednesday, 13 September 2017, at 6:16 p.m.

In Response To: Backgammon clock rules - introduce standard, rapid and blitz? (Mick Z)

Probably ten years ago or more I was playing a Giant in a Masters match in Atlanta. The Giant is a good friend and a good guy.

I am one that always gives the dice 2-3 quick good hard shakes and rolls. My opponent often shakes them forever, up by his ear, and seemingly awaits the right sound.

As I recall, I was good bit behind, but I had a lot of time left and my opponent had maybe two minutes. He notices, stops, and looks a bit perplexed. Then he says "Bill, this isn't fair, you are not shaking nearly as long as I do and, therefore, I am at a time disadvantage. You need to shake more to make it fair." I looked at him, rather amused, and replied, "There is another solution."

Another funny dice shaking/rolling anecdote in my years of play comes to mind. I was playing in the Michigan Masters final. It was a relatively close match and my opponent had less than a minute of reserve while I had 10-12 minutes remaining. It is a long story but this came to his attention. He questioned the clock, saying "I'm a fast player." I said, "Yes, you are a fast player but you are the world's slowest shaker/roller." I was videotaping my matches at the time. In reviewing the match I noticed he had the same ritual -- he would pick up the dice, fondle them a bit while checking the score card (every roll), put them in the cup, and then shake 23 times (every time, I think it was the number of his favorite professional athlete) before rolling. Usually, the delay was gone before he rolled. But he played very fast. In our very long match I calculated he might have lost an average of 2-3 seconds every roll -- so, in a couple of hundred rolls, he would lose ... ten minutes.

So, my point is that it is not always just the time settings. Various players have all types of personal idiosyncrasies that effect time controls and time management. I don't know the ideal settings; however, 2/12 have seemed to work fine for some time.

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