> Is there an accepted (enforced) standard for time to play a game or a
> move? When is the request to play faster reasonable and when is it simply
> a tactic to rattle a player into making a mistake? Are chess clocks used
> often?
Firstly, chess clocks are rarely used, although some tournaments are now
bringing them in -- but even then not for every match, just for ones which
seem to be very slow, or involving players with a history of playing very
slowly.
One problem is that backgammon games, more than chess games, vary wildly in
length. In some types of games, the checkers just keep getting hit and
going round and round again. So setting a time limit for a game seems a bit
unfair.
Now as for requests to play more quickly. I guess you've had a bad
experience, and it's hard to comment without knowing the actual
circumstances. Not that I'm going to let that stop me. :-)
Such a request could of course be used to rattle a player into making worse
moves. But I guess more likely is that some moves seem obvious to someone
with more experience, but a beginner would need to think about them. You'll
find when you've been playing for a while that you make a lot of moves
almost instantly. When you get to that stage, you're happy for people to
think for a while about a few, more difficult moves, but if your opponent
thinks about every move, the game can really drag. In a tournament, you
have to put up with it, but in social play, it's no fun.
In any case, you certainly shouldn't play faster than you're comfortable
with, especially if you're playing for money. You just won't play well that
way. If your opponent won't accept that a beginner does need to play more
slowly, find another opponent, human or computer, until you're a bit
faster.
Hope that helps.
Stephen Turner, Cambridge, UK http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adelie/stephen/
"This is Henman's 8th Wimbledon, and he's only lost 7 matches." BBC,
2/Jul/01
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