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Changes in backgammon over the years

Posted By: Jake Jacobs
Date: Thursday, 9 July 2009, at 1:02 p.m.

In Response To: Changes in backgammon over the years (Joe Russell)

The Japanese use clocks for all levels right down to beginner. They allocate five minutes per point. In a long match that should be plenty, but the shorter the match, the more time pressure. Since many of their matches are 5-pointers the number of matches affected by time is quite high. They don't, however, use sudden death. A player running overtime cedes two points to his opponent, and gets five more minutes. Each subsequent overtime cedes only one more point, but gets five more minutes. I won a match there when my opponent went overtime for the second time.

While I am a fan of clocks they don't always speed up matches. Admittedly it was a very special case, and used a method quickly abandoned (regular clock until overtime; Bronstein clock thereafter), but the most miserable match I ever played was a 9-pointer in Novi that began at 1 a.m. and ended at 4. Misery loves company, and the whole thing was so excruciating that over forty people stayed up to watch that train wreck of a match. (One old lady - never saw her before or since - told me during a break: "If that were my opponent, I'd punch him in the nose!")

Messages In This Thread

• Changes in backgammon over the years
  Joe Russell -- Wednesday, 8 July 2009, at 2:48 a.m.
  • clock abilities
    garyo -- Wednesday, 8 July 2009, at 4:16 p.m.
    • clock abilities
      Jason Lee -- Wednesday, 8 July 2009, at 4:40 p.m.
  • Changes in backgammon over the years
    Jake Jacobs -- Thursday, 9 July 2009, at 1:02 p.m.
    • Changes in backgammon over the years
      Chuck Bower -- Thursday, 9 July 2009, at 1:13 p.m.
  • Changes in backgammon over the years
    Marty Storer -- Thursday, 9 July 2009, at 2:47 p.m.