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BGonline.org Forums
Why use clocks? The other side of the argument
Posted By: Rich Munitz In Response To: Why use clocks? The other side of the argument (Henrik Bukkjaer)
Date: Wednesday, 19 January 2011, at 9:02 p.m.
It should be noisy players taunting each other, in smokey rooms, with money on the side, not the steril form of backgammon that they consider some modern tournaments to be.
Some people seem to think that you can't have a fun, engaging social experience playing backgammon if a clock is in use. That's simply not true. Many of us disprove that all the time. Backgammon will be turned into chess not by the use of equipment, but by the players who prefer that when they're sitting at the board playing competitively it should be strictly business, with little social interaction beyond saying "good match" at the beginning and shaking hands at the end. They will approach backgammon competition with that attitude with or without a clock. It is the attitude of the players that will make backgammon like chess, not the equipment.
Unfortunately we have a choice between two evils. Clocks or slow play. Some people don't think clocks are an evil, and many see it as a net improvement to the playing experience. Does anyone think that slow play is not an evil? Does anyone view slow play as an improvement to the playing experience? Clocks are the lesser of two evils no matter how you look at it. Sure, like any "budget", there's room for debate on how much time is reasonable and affordable. But infinite time is not reasonable and certainly not affordable. Anyone who thinks that clocking only the one 11 point match after noticing that it has already run for 3 hours probably thinks that the problem of speeding could be addressed by issuing fines and lectures for cars found wrapped around telephone poles. Too late. By the time the problem is realized by the authorities, the damage has already been done. At a minimum, a director should proactively impose clocks on the matches furthest behind when they start.
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