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BGonline.org Forums
Controversy in the Chou
Posted By: Daniel Murphy In Response To: Controversy in the Chou (Rich Munitz)
Date: Wednesday, 30 September 2009, at 3:14 a.m.
How do you interpret this section of the ABT rules?
"4.4 CHECKER HANDLING. Checkers which have been hit must be kept on the bar pending reentry. Checkers which have been borne off must be kept off the entire playing surface for the rest of the game. A player with a checker illegally removed from play may still be gammoned or backgammoned."
Well ... I'd say that a checker which has been hit is a checker that has been hit, that a checker which has been borne off is a checker that has been borne off, that you can only legally hit your opponent's checkers, that you can only legally bear off your own, that borne off checkers are supposed to be kept off the board, that hit checkers are supposed to be kept on the bar until reentered, that no checker is supposed to be palmed, that not following procedures strictly can lead to confusion and dispute, but that because some procedure was not strictly followed does not necessarily mean that the checker in question therefore necessarily becomes a hit checker, a borne off checker or a checker permanently removed from play.
In short, Rule 4.4. is not at bottom a punishment clause; the intent of the rule is that such moves (like all moves) be made clearly and in accord with some simple prescribed or commonly accepted procedures, so that disputes are avoided, and failures to follow said procedures can be corrected.
In the case Frank brought up, I'd have observed that that Frank had not made a "legal move," (since he had already removed the opposing checker from its point and had it in his hand when he picked up his dice), nor had he made a condonable illegal move, since holding out checkers in one's hand isn't permitted or condonable, and I'd have said, cutting through the crapola of tortuous interpretations of vaguely written rules, that "palm of hand is not a valid place for a checker to be, so kindly make a legal, procedurally correct move that doesn't end up with one checker in your hand." That is, if anything at all needed to be said, because I agree with you, Rich, that "had any of those players on the team been your partner in the box, they'd have been equally sure that your argument that the checker belonged on the bar was absolutely correct beyond any doubt. And they'd be right."
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