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Clocks and Penalties

Posted By: Rich Munitz
Date: Monday, 13 September 2010, at 3:09 a.m.

In Response To: Clocks and Penalties (johnk)

I like creativity and proposing solutions. The key here is the recognition that allowing players to consume an infinite amount of time without consequences is simply not compatible with the more important requirement that the tournament run on time. Some very logical man will one day say "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one".

So here's a thought exercise. Let's imagine that we gave each player 5 hours of clock time to play a 9 point match. And let's say that one of those players used up the full 5 hours of clock time. Would you say that after 4:58 that player should receive a warning and have his clock turned off and told "if you do that again you'll lose your next match on time"? Or would you say that after being given 5 hours of clock time and knowing that time limit for the entire match and watching the time go slowly to zero move after move and doing nothing to change the pace of play, that the player ought to lose the match? If you will concede that such an obscene usage of time with forewarning of the consequences makes such a penalty reasonable, then what if we only give 4 hours? Or 3, or 2? Or 5 minutes per point of match length plus 12 free seconds per move. Or 3 minutes/12 seconds. Or 2.5 minutes/12. Or 2 minutes/12 seconds?

Point is that the loss of match due to timeout is not a draconian penalty in and of itself. All that I think is really in question here is what is a reasonable amount of time to allow a player to use in a match before we say "enough is enough"? That is certainly a question worthy of debate (and it has certainly been well debated on this forum). But whatever it is that is deemed reasonable and appropriate by the collective wisdom of the world's backgammon directors and playing community is something we all need to live by for the greater good, and learn to get comfortable with it.

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