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BGonline.org Forums
Listing Impossible Plays
Posted By: Daniel Murphy In Response To: Listing Impossible Plays (Gregg Cattanach)
Date: Wednesday, 23 February 2011, at 8:54 p.m.
Good, I'm glad you agree that it wouldn't be a bad idea if the types of "impossible" moves I mentioned were excluded from the category of condonable illegal moves.
I'd just add two comments.
First, this type of problem -- like putting the wrong color on the bar -- has been causing problems and been discussed for 15 years or more. I'm not seeking unanimous agreement on who should do what with regard to "ethics" or "morality." I'd just ask this: when a player makes a bonehead mistake like this and his opponent (within his rights under the rules as they are usually interprested) condones it -- is that really how we want matches to be decided? I think nearly all of us, including you, Gregg, will say "no." For what it's worth, 11 years ago I probably would have wholeheartedly agreed with you that staying alert and putting the checkers where they belong is part of the backgammon skills set. But thinking about Michael Crane's write-up of the the 2000 incident in the UK helped change my mind. If the rule offends (to a lesser or greater degree among us), change the rule.
Second, amending rules is a long process and rules will probably never cover all possibilities. There are alternatives to waiting for someone to rewrite the rules. You mentione one alternative, which is that any ABT director is free to rewrite or make expections to "the" ABT rules. But the alternative I have in mind is something DBgF does. In addition to their rules, their Tournament Committee publishes from time to time authoritative answers to how rules should be interpreted in more or less specific cases. These answers can be thought of as an appendix to the rules, without having to change the wording of the rules themselves, and without adding a lot of situation-specific language to them.
Such an appendix might take a Q&A form, for example:
Q. Player A, bearing off, puts his own checker on the bar. Is this an "illegal move"?
A. No. This is not an illegal move subject to Rule 4.8. Both players are responsible for immediately correcting the error, and Player A shall place the borne off checker off the board.
Q. Player A, bearing off, puts his opponent's checker off the board. Is this an "illegal move"?
A. No. This is not an illegal move subject to Rule 4.8. Both players are responsible for immediately correcting the error, and Player A shall replace the opponent's checker, and make a legal move.
Q. Player A, coming in from the bar, removes his opponent's checker from the bar.Is this an "illegal move"?
A. No. This is not an illegal move subject to Rule 4.8. Both players are responsible for immediately correcting the error, and Player A shall replace the opponent's checker, and make a legal move.
Q. Player A hits a checker but when he concludes his turn the checker is off the board or on a point, not resting on the bar. Is this an "illegal move."
A. No. This is not an illegal move subject to Rule 4.8. Both players are responsible for immediately correcting the error, and Player A shall place the opponent's checker on the bar.
Q. Player A rolls and moves his opponent's checkers, instead of his own. Is this an "illegal move?"
A. No. This is not an illegal move subject to Rule 4.8. Both players are responsible for immediately correcting the error, and Player A shall replace the opponent's checker and make a legal move.
Here's another:
Q. In a clocked game, it is Player A's turn to roll or double, but instead he hits his clock. Is it now Player B's turn?
A. No. Player cannot pass his turn [fill in the details about notification, agreement, penalties if any, etc].
Gazing into my crystal ball, I give this discussion another two years max to run, by which time ABT and/or USBGF will have adopted some version of "legal moves only."
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