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How I wish I had more time to rant in general

Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer
Date: Sunday, 5 December 2010, at 8:07 p.m.

In Response To: How I wish I had more time to rant in general (Jason Lee)

Sometimes, if I'm playing in a tournament that doesn't require clocks, I'll ask my opponent if they'd like to play with a clock. The most popular response when they decline is, "Nah, I'd rather not... I'm a fast player."

1. You're probably not.

2. If you proclaimed that you were a SLOW player, THAT would be a good reason for not wanting to play with a clock.

This is so true.

Most slow players don't realize they are slow.

---

I have a very good feeling for my own playing speed. I know my "regular" speed, and I know how fast I can play if pushed. I also have a very good understanding of the impact on my game, when I speed up.

I've learned by doing and I've set myself a goal to learn this. I started by doing a lot of digging into the mechanics of time, when we were playing analogue clocks - with those, a lot of stuff could be learned, skills improved and understanding of your own speed and others could be translated into MET-like outputs. I started to record data, in order to publish an article or booklet on the subject (how to calculate the time-factor into your MET calculations, how to take advantage of an opponent in time trouble, when to use your own thinking time best etc.).

So when we changed away from analogue to Bronstein, I really thought I lost a lot. But I had a very good understanding of my playing speed in relation to error sizes and error rates.

I think I've played around 100 clocked 17 point matches. I've played a lot of clocked 3, 5, 7 and 13 point matches as well, and I've also played and hosted a few speed-gammon tournaments in various forms.

I've been playing backgammon for 20-25 years, so I know the game from before clocks were seen widespread. But I played speed-chess as a kid, so I've been trying to use clocks in many settings privately for my entire backgammon life.

I really agree with Phil, that clocks should be the next thing in tournament backgammon (at a certain level).

I just wonder, the games referred to by Stick (Bill's article), what clock rules were used there? 12 secs + 2 minutes/game? More? Or less?

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