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BGonline.org Forums
For some players, coffee should be required
Posted By: mamabear In Response To: Is music allowed while playing? (Matt Cohn-Geier)
Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 11:21 p.m.
Now that "clocks on request" is close to becoming the default policy at ABT events, it will be rare that a match is proceeding slowly enough to cause excessive delays--but it can still happen if two slow players meet on the drawsheet and neither requests a clock. In that case, maybe the director should be empowered to require that both players consume, say, a cup of coffee for each hour that the match continues. To be fair to the players, if the coffee in the playing room is really bad, as adjudicated by a committee that will include me and two other people who can tell decent coffee from agricultural runoff, they will be allowed to take a break to go to Dunkin' Donuts.
But seriously, regarding the headphones I'm with those who think the default should be that they are permitted, but that an opponent should be able to make a case to the director as to why the player should have to remove them, and see if it has traction. Among the reasons I would consider legitimate if I were a director: "I can hear the music he's listening to, and I can't stand AC/DC or Dire Straits"; "I've had to repeat everything I've said to him regarding the game at least twice, and this is distracting to me"; and "He's tapping out the percussion part to 'Every Breath You Take' on his homeboard checkers, and now I can't get that song out of my head!"
What I wouldn't consider is the lack-of-respect argument. I agree that it shows lack of respect for both the opponent and the event to be listening to music or the football game while playing. But unless we are also going to insist that respect be shown in other ways also, perhaps with dress and speech codes (resist the impulse to respond with anything political, SVP) I think we should be a little hesitant to go there.
A note on speech codes: I have seen some very nice players absorb far more abuse than is absolutely necessary from their opponents without complaining--such people would not be disrespectful at all IMO if they told the person to shut up and maybe even grow up.
Matt: What kind of coffee were you drinking? I might want to give it a try! But if its that swill from Starbucks, I'm going back to studying checker plays that vary with match scores instead.
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