" Rules" in the game of Checkers/Draughts--------

[Alan Millhone]

Hello everyone:

It was mentioned a time ago that there might be need in making the rules of our game more standardized around the English speaking World. Does anyone have any comments on our rules, use of timing clocks ,etc. that might need discussed ?

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation
District 6 Champion
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[Ingo_Zachos]

I think there is a WCDF committee working on that.

I believe, that three things should be cleared:

1. Time rate

Standard should be something like 30 moves in 60 minutes, but here is one problem due to "3 move" (3 ply is the correct term by the way as only one white and two black plys r balloted, and not three complete moves which would be 6 plys!):
Red has already two plys "made" after the opening was choosen in restricted style, so he has 60 minutes for 28 plays left in effect, meaning 2 minutes 8 seconds in average, white will make 29 plys, so only 2 minutes 24 seconds as average in effective.
So white should get a benefit to balance the chances, or it will be unfair.
Maybe 58 minutes to white and 56 to red, making it 2 minutes per move in average for both sides in restricted play and 30 moves in 60 minutes in GAYP.

2. recording

The games should all be recorded (maybe exceptions for quickplay and beginners or illliterates), for the number of the moves must be controlled and the drawing rules require a prove for 40 moves count or repeated position.
In chess this is no problem, so why should it be a problem in checkers/draughts ?

3. DRAW rules

two points need calrification:

I. How to offer and draw and how long is a draw offer accpetable ?
Especially dirty tricks like offering a draw at any move to nag the opponent should be prohibited, or offering on the opponents time in time-trouble.

II. When is a draw inevitable ?
A) Three times the same position
B) "40 moves" rule
C) Referee to decide if quickplay or quickplay finish

AND(most important):

the rules should be the same all over the world, so all federations should be recommended to accept WCDF rules.

Greetinx from sunny Dortmund, Germany

Ingo Zachos

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Ingo, everything you said is already written ... in FMJD rules ! Once WCDF is a part (affilated) of FMJD, all it's rules automatically should apply to WCDF.

I don't think there is much to talk here. Only very small number of adjustments can be made to keep checkers / draughts heritage and traditions (like crowing King for opponent etc).

Multiply call draw is prohibited in FMJD rules along with many other you mentioned. They define more than 20 (!) situations of illegal moves or actions.

In additions - usage mobile (cell) phones during tournament / match play is prohibited.

Alex

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Here is what happened in one of WCM 2005 game. Ron King made his last move #24, but forgot to push clocks (!) and after couple minutes his flag failed. Position was drawn, but I mentioned to referee Don Brattin, that he failed on time and I should receive a win.

After then referee ... started to read WCDF rules - what is writtent here. In rules it was only one (HA-HA) line:

"Each opponent should make decided number of moves during control time" Then referee told me - "he made all 24 moves, I saw this !!!"

It was so funny for me after playing almost 40 years under normal professional circumstancies. When I reported after match this incident to Charles Walker - former WCDF President, he responded:

"Alex, should one game, win or draw, change coure of match ? You would win it anyway !"

Alex

[Patrick Parker]

The games should all be recorded (maybe exceptions for quickplay and beginners or illliterates), for the number of the moves must be controlled and the drawing rules require a prove for 40 moves count or repeated position.
In chess this is no problem, so why should it be a problem in checkers/draughts ?

are there positions that require more than 40 moves to win?
without making a king? or trading pieces?

same position 3 times....is this back to back move same position three times
or is this 3 times period

[Ed Gilbert]

are there positions that require more than 40 moves to win?
without making a king? or trading pieces?

Yes, definitely. You can see a couple of them here: http://pages.prodigy.net/eyg/Checkers/mtc.htm

There are thousands of positions that require more than 40 king moves before a man can advance or a capture move made. For positions with up to 10 pieces, the longest I have found is a 9-piece position that requires around 195 moves (I forget the exact number but this is close). There are at least 100 positions that require more than 100 king moves before a man or capture move can be made.

-- Ed

[rich beckwith]

Interesting comments from Mr. Gilbert. I believe I once read where chess has a "library of positions" that can be official exceptions to a 40-move rule. However, I can imagine all kinds of considerations and scenarios to implement this for checkers!

[Alex_Moiseyev]

40 moves rules is still in affect in WCDF. There were very hot debates during signing contract prior my 2005 WCM with Ron King about 40 or 50 moves rule. Finally 40 moves was choosen by voting the Board.

Number of positions which require more than 50 full moves is significantly lower than the same number for 40 moves, however even 100 positions is still relatively very miserable number.

As Richard Pask said graciously in his classic "Golden Dozen: "Lets leave it programs !"

Alex

[Ed Gilbert]

I should ammend my comment about the number of positions that require N king moves before a conversion move can be made. I was counting the number of database subdivisions that have these high MTC (moves to conversion) positions, not the number of positions themselves. The actual number of positions is much greater. There are more than 1000 positions with MTC values greater than 100. There is a huge number of positions with MTC values greater than 40, probably millions. I could extract the count from the MTC database if it was important to know the exact number.

I don't think this necessarily means that any rules need to be changed. As a practical matter it is unlikely that any human player could play all 100+ moves correctly from one of these high MTC positions. In a real game both players would make mistakes. The 40 move rule is still a good one for getting games finished in a timely manner. If a game happens to play into one of these high MTC positions and the weak side can manage to hold on for 40 moves without any conversion moves occuring, then I think its reasonable to call the game a draw, even if the strong side is in a win.

-- Ed