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BGonline.org Forums
2/12 is too fast for OTB
Posted By: mamabear In Response To: 2/12 is too fast for OTB (jdg)
Date: Wednesday, 8 April 2009, at 4:11 p.m.
I felt the same way you express here when I first heard that clocks would be set for 2/12. That was the main reason I wasn't as enthusiastic about them in the beginning as other people here were. Like you, I wanted the limits to be 2/15 or even 1.5/15. My reason was that I use more time shaking and rolling than average, and was concerned I'd be losing too many stray seconds move after move just on game mechanics.
However, that has not proved to be the case. I've now played several tournament matches on the clock, and in general the "stray seconds" are taking at most 30 or 40 seconds total from my reserve time in an 11 point match, and probably less now that I'm more used to the clock. The gains from using a single pair of dice, and to the tournament overall in speeding up the slowest matches, much more than offset this problem IMO. I'm now a clock-believer, and am happy with the 2/12 settings that are easy to remember and seem to be becoming the standard.
The only match at this weekend's tournament where I used up a lot of reserve time was my first round match against Neil Kazaross. I was down to just under 3 minutes reserve at the end, more than enough had I lost the Crawford game and the match then proceeded for another couple of games. In all my other clocked matches, I had plenty of reserve left.
Two things I have learned: 1) A greater proportion of backgammon moves really are pretty routine than I would have guessed, and b) You can usually anticipate when you're going to need a pip count, and can do it at least partly on your opponent's time, not all on your own.
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