Hi all. I am organising a live tournament for next year and would value some feedback on new rules that others have suggested. When you listen to everyone you get a wide variety of suggestions. Ok, here is what has been suggested so far to me by players who will be playing :-

1. Trying out a move or "shuffling" as it is sometimes called. Limit to 1 try out per game.

2. When trying out a move the player must indicate (tell) his opponent he is doing so and place the moved checkers on the top of the point and not touching the existing men. This would make less likely there is any confusion about what the original position was.

3. Make it so that anyone who is watching a match can point out illegal moves. The purpose is to keep it honest and discourage cheating.

4. Impose some sort of penalty for illegal moves. Suggested is the offended party can choose whether the move stands or not and if not the men are reset and the offended party can change one of the offenders dice to what ever number he wants (he can leave them the same). The offender then has to play new number. A penalty for trying to cheat.

5. The two dice rule. Similar to when a match is clocked, you only use 2 dice and tap the board or say finished when your move is over. That way there are no arguments about what was rolled.

Any thoughts or suggestions of other rules are welcome.

There's a tremendous advantage in keeping rules uniform and consistent over time. Players come to a tournament knowing what the rules are, which minimizes disputes and hard feelings.

None of the rules suggested in your post are "better" than the traditional versions of how to handle such situations. They're just different. As such, they're guaranteed to cause problems because players don't spend a lot of time studying rule sheets before the start of play.

Backgammon was blessed by a long period of time when the rules stayed constant and everyone knew what they were. The advent of backgammon forums (although great for the game in most respects) has led to a more-or-less constant discussion about rules, which is slowly returning the game to the relative chaos of the 1960s and early 1970s, where every organizer and club had their own set. Not a good development.

Thanks for that. The above suggestions were made to me and rather than myself or the other organiser deciding, I thought I would put it on the forum to get a wider perspective.

The illegal moves rules have come about because I after running two live tournaments there were allegations of a particular player making illegal moves. The offended parties felt that there was no discouragement to doing so. If you succeeded you gained an advantage, if caught you only had to play the legal move. We do not want to ban the player concerned as nothing was proved, but we want to discourage this form of cheating.

We will definitely scrape suggested rule 5 as it will cause too much confusion.

I like Rule 3 as it requires no modification to a player except giving an added incentive not to make illegal moves.

As stated above, I do like the idea of a penalty for illegal moves as we need to discourage the deliberate making of illegal moves.

As for rules 1 and 2, in the arab countries you are not allowed to try out a move and this has not stopped the game from being popular. I can think of no other game where you are allowed to try out a move then reset the men.

The immediate goal here is get feedback on the suggestions, good or bad. Then We will decide which if any of the suggestions to adopt. So please any feedback is welcome.

To be fair, unlike other games I know of, in backgammon you move more than one piece. But like blindfold chess it would be a good exercise to use your memory and imagination. An alternative, but more timeconsuming measure could be to put a coin in the place of the checker.

Here are my two cents:

1. Shuffling — I like the current rules. Unlike, say, chess, in backgammon you are always moving at least two pieces on each turn. Every sixth turn, on average, you must move four pieces. Sometimes, visualizing the result of a move is harder than it is in chess. Yogiman made this point in his post.
   
   Another factor is the clock. When one is used, the delay time—at least in the USA—is typically only 12 seconds. That means you have to touch something pretty quickly. Being allowed to try out a move can actually speed play. Compare that to chess, where you might be given 90 minutes of clock time to play your first 40 moves in a game. In chess, you have more time to visualize a move.
   
   Finally, there are times—especially when you roll doublets—when it will help you to make part of your play, and then take a look at the resulting position to decide on the other part.
   
   
2. Announcing a trial — Sounds OK to me. I do this quite frequently when I play. “I just want to look at this...” In practice, this requirement will often be overlooked by a player, and its violation ignored by his opponent. It’s good to have the rule, however, in case of dispute. Then the player who failed to make the announcement should be at a disadvantage in any rulings made by the director.
   
   Offset your checkers in a trial — I do this myself, but I think a fingertip’s worth of separation is all you need. By placing the checkers near the middle of the board (at the tip of a point), you lose much of the benefit of being able to try out a move.
   
   
3. Legal moves only — I am a big proponent of legal moves. Chiva Tafazzoli uses them in his tournaments as does Patrick “MFIC” Gibson at his tournaments in southern California. Phil Simborg, Chuck Bower and Jeb Horton wrote them into their Tournament Rules and Standards Guidelines.
   
   When legal moves are enforced, spectators should be allowed to point out infractions, provided that is, they do not inject themselves unnecessarily into the action.
   
   
4. Penalty for Illegal Moves — I do not like your proposal here. The current rules already provide a reasonable penalty for this.
   
   If you have a problem player whom you suspect of cheating, I recommend that a director or staff be assigned to monitor the player. Keeping track of the frequency of misplays made by a suspicious player should provide evidence that he or she is either incompetent or cheats, without determining which.
   
   
5. Two-dice Rule — I like the idea, but question whether it can be implemented cleanly. You could create more arguments than you solve. “I did not tap.” “Yes you did.” Punching a clock is unequivocal.

I recommend reviewing these sources:

US BACKGAMMON TOURNAMENT RULES & PROCEDURES
(ABT Rules)
http://www.chicagopoint.com/usrules.html

US BACKGAMMON CLOCK RULES & PROCEDURES
(ABT Clock Rules)
http://www.chicagopoint.com/bgclockrules.html

Tournament Backgammon Rules and Standards Guide
Phil Simborg, Chuck Bower, and Jeb Horton
Modified by Patrick Gibson, June 2013
http://www.bkgm.com/articles/BowerHo...ibson2013.html

Tournament Backgammon Rules and Standards Guide
Phil Simborg, Chuck Bower, and Jeb Horton
November 2012
(This is the original, slightly inferior, set of rules.)
http://www.bkgm.com/articles/BowerHo...tandardsGuide/

Rules Breakthrough in LA
BgOnline Post by Phil Simborg
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbb...es;read=142622

You will find an endless stream of arguments at BgOnline regarding rules and their interpretation. The state of affairs online is just as Bill describes.

I wish you luck in your quest.

Mike

Hi Grant Hoffman,

The most important new rule is rule 1. I agree with it totally.

And it makes cheating harder to do. It is mostly in the process of trying out several moves when cheaters
"accidentally" shift a checker

I would state the rule as follows:

... Like in chess touching is moving, when you touch a checker you have to move it if you can do so legally.

I wouldn't give the player 1 try out per game.

I have played chess a long time and I totally disagree with the argument that it's harder to visualize a backgammon position
because you might have up to 4 moves to make. I found it much harder to visualize in chess
because you have to visualize a lot of positions after several moves.
You have to have a rather deep horizon when you for example gambit a piece for an attack on the king.

The best way to stop cheating is the obligation of scoring the game by both players.
The player can claim wrong/illegal moves as long as the dice are on the table, thanks to the score the position can eventually be reconstructed.
The Player on roll may not touch the dice after rolling.
Long/broad sleeves are not allowed.

Rule 3 is not a good rule, a watcher might be helping a cheater.

greetings k.

I like also the touch-move-rule like in chess.
If a player is able to do all that pipcounting and takepoint- calculation in the head- why couldn't he do that with the possible checker plays?
IMO this rule would even make bg a bigger mind game.
(annoyed of players shuffling all the time around and later asking 'was it like that?'