playBunny: That bear-'em-all-off-first move breaks the rule.....
Exactly, you should, as Chessmaster1000 said, investigate if the move is legal first. If you allow that that the legality is investigated after the game is over, you'd have to allow "that bear-'em-all-off-first move".
In other words, a "legal move" as put in the English version of the BG rules refers to a move that is allowed by the BK rules, including a move that is against the MDU rule.
playBunny: That's interesting. I wonder which set of rules would take precedence. I believe the English ones should be primary with regard to the other translations but Czech is Fencer's language so I wonder whether the English set is a translation of the Czech, vice versa or are they independant?
Even though I don't know what you mean saying that the English rules should take precedence with regard to the other translations, I believe the rules should be interpreted in connection with what the game itself allows you and more importantly, what has been declared by Fencer on the discussion boards. To answer your question - I'm sure most of the rules were written first in Czech (since the Czech ones are more comprehensive and Czech is Fencer's mother tongue). Why would Fencer write something in English and then translate it back to his own language? As for this backgammon problem, I think that Fencer said somewhere that it was a bug and would be eventually fixed. That means it's up to the players how will they play. You say playing by the Worldwide Backgammon Federation rules shows more sport, I agree with that but if your opponent doesn't I suggest to move on, maybe mention it to your opponent in the game discussion and wait for the rule to be implemented.
BTW, the Czech version of the rules doesn't say "The player could not make a legal move with the second die", it says "The player could not make a move with the second die"
Chessmaster1000: Find any game between certain players (in a profile of one of them or in a tournament table) and under the gameboard, you will see this for instance:
Score of finished games (Chessmaster1000 - Pedro Martínez, Dark Chess): 0 : 1 (= 0) (show games)
And when you click on "show games", you'll get the list.:)
1. NO CHEATING. This term includes making use of external programs for suggesting the best moves and deliberate losing in order to increase the opponent's BKR. Such behavior, if proved, may lead to the account blockage and removal of the BKR from the ratings table.
1. NO CHEATING. This includes using outside programs to help play and losing on purpose for the goal of boosting ratings. Your account may be banned, and ratings will be removed.
Mike UK: Yes, it does, I meant the 13-5 13-5 as the best move in the Chuck's game instead of what Chuck played...sorry for the misunderstanding, my fault...
Czuch Chuckers: I let gnubg analyze the game and it says that your last move was the best you could make. However, it says that your play is "terrible!", marking 3 moves as very bad (moves No. 2, No. 7 and No. 10) and 2 as bad (No. 3 and No. 11). It also says that verbatim is playing like an "Amateur", having all of his moves marked as good.
I have no idea what settings I have it on..I just clicked new game, set it to 5-point matches and played...where can I see the level of the computer?
I have just finished another two 5-point mathces, won both of them but now it shows that in the first one, I was playing like and Intermediate (? the Czech translation of the program is not so good so I hope it's intermediate) and like a World Class in the other one...no very bad moves this time but a few bad moves...it seems that the number of "very bad moves" is decisive as for the final determination of your level of playing...
LOL, I have downloaded the gnubg program, played 10 5-point games with it, won all of them and the session analysis tells me I'm playing like a beginner, marking 1 or two of my moves in each game as very bad...interesting...a lot of stuff to learn I suppose...