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BGonline.org Forums
Another strange incident from the Cleveland Tourney
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Another strange incident from the Cleveland Tourney (Peggy Neubig)
Date: Wednesday, 30 March 2011, at 1:22 p.m.
I have known Oleg for years, and I have argued with him on several topics and often disagreed with him, but I have never had any reason to believe he is in any way dishonest.
Given your description of the circumstances, I am convinced he was simply confused. I could believe that a stranger might lie, take the money and run, but someone who regularly plays at our local events and some ABT events would certainly know that he could never get away with intentionally stealing the final prize money--that's just too stupid. And Oleg is not stupid--he's a computer programmer for a major company and a decent backgammon player, and when you get into a discussion with him, though I often disagree with him and don't appreciate the way he makes some of his arguments, again, he is honest and intelligent.
One MUST give someone the benefit of the doubt even if you don't know them UNLESS you have good reason not to. I would NEVER accuse someone of being dishonest without strong proof.
No real harm was done here...you got to play your match.
As for the tournament director, it's easy to hindsight and say he should have checked, but you can't really expect every tournament director to check with every loser of every match to be certain someone is telling the truth. If we have an incident like this once every 10 years, that's fine, particularly when it is so easy to fix.
If Oleg had left the tournament and not found, I GUARANTEE YOU that eventually you those of us who know Oleg would have contacted him and returned the money and you would probably have been awarded first place money and the title by the tournament director.
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