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tournament rules and ethics

Posted By: Chiva Tafazzoli
Date: Wednesday, 4 May 2011, at 4:22 p.m.

In Response To: tournament rules and ethics (falafel)

My name was called in the initial post by Falafel so I might throw my 2 cents in.

I recall the situation perfectly. 2 very experienced players from Europe were involved, along with 2 inexperienced players at that time they were inexperienced, we´re talking 2008 or 2009) from Russia and Georgia. The whole scenario took place in Georgia.

NB: In Russia, Georgia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, backgammon is widely played in itstraditional form and it´s common to place the checkers you bear off on the bar and not necessarily outside the board.

Also NB: English is not widely spread and understood among players from those countries, so a minutious study of the English rules is not accessible to everyone, especially when you believe that "your" rules are the "common" rules.

When I was called for the ruling, and after listenting to explanations from both sides, I observed that the checker could not have been on the bar in a legal manner. Although the "legal play" rule was not part of the official rules at that time (the rules were changed in 2010), I decided to rule for the legal play.

The reasons for my ruling were:

Legal play and fair-play both take precedence.

I don´t think anyone would want to lose a match like that, nor would anyone with a sense of ethics want to win a match like that.

I also think that our role as a community of players and organizers, in spite of competition and a will to win, should keep in mind that new players to modern backgammon should not be penalized in a way to quit the game. They should be led and their mistakes should be pointed out and explained to them.

However, I passed on the case to the ruling committee and was happy that they underlined my ruling.

Clear rules are fine but they can never be clear enough to have an answer to ALL problems that might occur during a game.

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