Not to belabor the issue, but I finally got around to looking up Kendall's ruleset. He does mention this: "If a player cannot use a throw to move a piece forward, it must be used to move a piece backward. If a backward move makes a player's piece land on a space occupied by a piece belonging to the opponent, the opponent's piece is sent to the place where the player's move began. If a player cannot move, the turn ends." You are right about the actual rules of the game have been lost over time. So, I guess, any thing goes as far as rules for this game. I just prefer this particular rule for this type of situation. It just makes sense and, for me, it makes the game much more enjoyable.