"Drastic action" to revitalize Abalone    
8 September 1999  
The top Abalone players have  proposed changes to the game for World Title events. Arbiter Arnold Lutton said that the petition includes virtually every medal winner in MSO history, and gives a clear indication of the temperature of the game's elite. Lutton added that the rank and file players did not seem too concerned.

Report from the arbiter: There has been information on the Internet indicating that the standard starting position can be used to achieve a forced draw. Because of this we offered an option (if agreed by both players) to start as on attached document.  

The document is a petition from the players requested that this become the accepted starting position with the traditional one being offered as an option (if both players agree). I suggest that these be known as "World Championship Rules".  

In addition I would suggest that a tie-break system be included in the rules: The players found the following acceptable this year:  

1) Sum of opponents scores (i.e. total number of games won by opponents)
2) The algebraic sum of score differences in each game play. i) drawn games to be scored 3-3 ii) byes to count as 6-4 iii) win on time to count as 6-X where X is the number of spheres removed by loser.  

Arnold Lutton [signed]  

PROPOSAL from MSO 99 Abalone tournament players:  

We, signed below, propose to change the starting position for Abalone tournament MSO2000 to:  

      W W . B B
  W W W B B B
 . W W . B B .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
 . B B . W W .
  B B B W W W
   B B . W W

The exact rule should state:  

GAME STARTS FROM THE NEW POSITION. IF BOTH PLAYERS AGREE THEY WILL BE PERMITTED TO START FROM THE CLASSICAL POSITION.  

This is to allow smooth change for the new position. This year we played with the new position only if both players agreed. This change can be supported with these arguments:  

1) Original position is easy to block (i.e. both players reach the blocking position and then repeat moves).  

2) Even worse: if only one player wants to block (usually white because of his disadvantage at the beginning) it is very hard for his opponent to unblock the position and it needs very expertise play and sacrifice of some balls i.e. It could happen in Grandmaster v. Average player.  

3) In the new position, it's very hard to block and impossible to force a blocking position if the opponent doesn't want to. It's also difficult to reach the centre and make a stable group here. The game is interesting from the very beginning and it's very dynamic. The only thing that was disadvantageous: some player felt that the new position is too "new" for them and they want to be more sure, because the tournament is important for them. This only means that if our proposal is used next year, it should be noted in the information distributed several months before MSO (via Internet for example).  

4) We consider ourselves good Abalone players, so we think our opinion has some weight.  

Jakub Aragorn TESINSKY [signed]  

Gert SCHINDER [signed]  

Vojtech HRABAL (W. Ch. 1998) [signed]  

Miroslav VORACEK [signed]  

Gianni COTTOGNI [signed]  

Elie CALI [signed]  

Ian TURNER [signed]  

Bintsa ANDRIANI [signed]  

Marc TASTET [signed]  

Stephane NICOLET [signed]