Rule or common courtesy?

Rail · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

I was playing an informal game of backgammon with a buddy last night. I had a bunch of guys over and we were all watching the football game while we played. I looked away from the board when my team was about to make a touchdown and missed my buddy’s move in our game. I asked him what play he made and he refused to tell me! He said that his play was legal and that he was under no obligation to tell me what the play was and it’s my fault I wasn’t paying attention.

It’s no big deal, it was just a friendly game, not formal or anything, but it just ticked me off a bit. Does anyone know if there is a rule about this in backgammon? If not, shouldn’t he have just told me out of common courtesy?

Deuce · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 38

Well, there are unwritten rules that sort of goes both ways on this one…

There is a rule of etiquette that says a player should wait until his opponent is paying attention before he makes his move. However, if your opponent is consistently looking away this can get annoying so I think that your friend could have been in the right.

He is also under no obligation to tell you what his play was. If he made the move and you weren’t paying attention it’s your loss. But as it was simply a friendly game, no stakes or anything, I think it would be common courtesy to tell you what his play was, but only if you weren’t being rude by ignoring the game.

evilari · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 17

You shouldn’t have been looking away from the board in the first place. Any serious backgammon player would have been paying attention to every single play! Your friend didn’t have to tell you his move and good for him for sticking up for himself!