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BGonline.org Forums
This rookie tournament director's opinion (long reply)
Posted By: Colin Owen In Response To: This rookie tournament director's opinion (long reply) (neilkaz)
Date: Friday, 10 February 2017, at 11:12 p.m.
These are not the reasons for the new rule that were put forward by USBGF Executive Director Bill Riles, who cited: "...a development that will both accelerate the completion of matches and will protect the player rolling in his or her home board from otherwise lost game clock time".
Clearly however, reducing the disincentive to roll the dice more forcefully IS a further benefit of the new rule. Note that I use the term 'reducing the disincentive', for it in no way provides a tangible reward for rolling properly, particularly if the player has little regard for, or simply ignorance of, how their opponent feels about the way they roll. Rather, it is simply less likely that they will experience negative consequences, ie having to re-roll with their clock running down.
The only way to remove a player's fear of rolling cocked dice is to allow them to reset their delay. But you have stated, without explanation, and in more than one post here, that you strongly believe this is not what clocks are for. Please think again.
Surely, clocks are for helping to keep the tournament on schedule, for avoiding the tedium of excessively slow play, and for avoiding the unfairness of it - given almost unlimited time many of us are more likely to find the right play. But, is it not also unfair that, a player who rolls the dice a bit more forcibly - which clearly aids randomness - is more likely to be punished with loss of his clock time? You rightly acknowledge that it is, and - though the new 'on chequer' rule reduces this a good deal - it in no way eliminates it.
Many of the instances of cocked dice overlap, of course, with the new and old rules: dice leaning against chequers, against the side wall (on chequers or not), and against the other die. Also, of course, dice that leave the rolling area. All of these will still lead to the potential loss of reserve time, and perhaps even the immediate loss on time of the match. If I was a player who prioritised avoiding losing any time due to cocked dice, I still wouldn't roll anywhere near chequers or the side walls with the new rule. It is only by allowing the player to regain their delay setting that this fear is removed. I still feel, however, that a player should keep their dice within the rolling area to earn this entitlement. Flinging dice wildly off the board is just going too far, and only pausing the clock to retrieve dice should be allowed in this instance.
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