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My thoughts for a potential rule change...

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Sunday, 25 October 2009, at 5:31 a.m.

In Response To: My thoughts for a potential rule change... (Robert Maier)

There is a rule in racquetball that the referee's call is final. In the finals of a major tournament, the referee made a bad call in favor of Ruben Gonzales in the finals of a major tournament. Ruben graciously gave the point and the match to his opponent. (I have done this myself several times.)

There is a rule in backgammon that if a player makes an illegal play, you can allow it to stand. I was playing someone in a major tournament and in the middle of his move there was a disturbance...the fellow next to us spilled a glass of water and we had to pick up our papers quickly to keep them from getting wet. My opponent picked up his dice without bearing off a checker. I insisted he complete the move (to his advantage).

If I had accidentally played someone to the wrong match length and he won, but I had reached the correct number first, I could take the win, but I know that even though that is the rule, it is not fair to my opponent because every cube decision we made was based on our both thinking it was to a longer match score. So in spite of the rule on the books, I would absolutely give him the win. He really did beat me, and I am not about to take the victory on a technicality, any more than I would take a win on a bad call from the ref, or take advantage of a spilled glass of water.

Yes, there are rules, and we should abide by them to the best of our ability and we should insist our opponents do too. And I do. But I refuse to use a rule to take unfair advantage of someone, and I simply hope and trust that others will treat me the same way. If they don't, they have to live with themselves.

I have NO PROBLEM enforcing rules that hurt my opponent when they simply were careless or made a mistake in checker play or fast rolling, but not when I am equally responsible for a mistake, which is the case when you both make the mistake of playing to the wrong score.

Now, does that mean the rule should be changed? Maybe...that's a different subject. As I have stated before, there are MANY rules that need to be changed or edited for clairty.

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