Walter: In the voice of Mr T: Danofool !! ;-)

Thanks for a full and well considered response. It was very persuasive. And then I checked the status of my bug report. Tulip reported the same bug back in March with regard to this game. Her opponent's next roll was a 6-5 and he should have had to break his block but got away with moving a different man using just one of the dice values. Fencer marked that bug as open with a priority of 3 and my bug as a duplicate. This tells me that Fencer recognises the maximise dice usage rule and wishes, when he has time, to implement it correctly. Moves made as a result of the bug would therefore be illegal under the BrainKing rules - else it wouldn't be classed as a bug.

That doesn't mean that we are necessarily obliged to enforce the rule ourselves. To me it's an opportunity to be sporting. But if we were playing for money, or I didn't like my opponent, then I'd be more likely to shove sportsmanship to the side and take the advantage.

grenv: Hey, good buddy, are you and I actually agreeing to something here?! lolol. My opinion revises upwards. ;-) (I assume that by ".. needs all the help they can get" you mean those who don't know the rules well enough need help in winning the game rather than all the psychological help they can get - which is what it sounded like at first, lol).

Hrqls, skipinnz: I'm torn between asking for a draw, knowing I'll be pissed off with losing, and playing on to satisfy my curiosity. I wish it could be made unrated but unfortunately there's been no response from anyone with the ability to make changes to the game. Big Bad Wolf, are you one of those persons?

WhiteTower: Pawn Power Rules!! ;-)
You're correct in saying that .. there is no rule that says "when a game implementation is faulty, try to stick to the rules of real world play". However, how many gentlemen's agreements are? By their nature they tend to be implicit and "understood". A rule that exists in the mind is still a rule, even if it's unenforceable and for adoption only by those who prefer to live by it.

Hrqls: Thank you, too, for a considered answer. I like your approach to refereeing and it fits this situation. I'm not here to find out what to do. (As you say, that's up to Wayne and myself). For me, this is more about bringing a potentially interesting topic to the board.