Laws of Chess

[Michael Jones]

FIDE recognizes for its own tournaments and matches only one system of notation, the Algebraic System, and recommends the use of this uniform chess notation also for chess literature and periodicals. Scoresheets using a notation system other than algebraic may not be used as evidence in cases where normally the scoresheet of a player is used for that purpose. An arbiter who observes that a player is using a notation system other than the algebraic should warn the player about of this requirement.

Given that different languages use different letters for the pieces, how can algebraic notation be described as 'uniform'? Should a German player in an English tournament be compelled to use the English abbreviations for the pieces because the arbiters might not understand the German ones, or vice versa?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

FIDE recognizes for its own tournaments and matches only one system of notation, the Algebraic System, and recommends the use of this uniform chess notation also for chess literature and periodicals. Scoresheets using a notation system other than algebraic may not be used as evidence in cases where normally the scoresheet of a player is used for that purpose. An arbiter who observes that a player is using a notation system other than the algebraic should warn the player about of this requirement.

Given that different languages use different letters for the pieces, how can algebraic notation be described as 'uniform'? Should a German player in an English tournament be compelled to use the English abbreviations for the pieces because the arbiters might not understand the German ones, or vice versa?

I was going to raise this earlier, but didn't bother. You are right, though. I wonder if anyone bothers to use figurine notation, and draw figurines or use little ink stamps to indicate the identity of the pieces moved. That would be more universal than using letters. But to be serious here, you can still have a universal algebraic system if you indicate both the starting square and destination square of the piece moved, though you still have to have a universal notation for castling. Even then, you still have the problem of Cyrillic (and other non-Roman) scripts for the letters a-h...

[Alex Holowczak]

Should a German player in an English tournament be compelled to use the English abbreviations for the pieces because the arbiters might not understand the German ones, or vice versa?

To become a FIDE Arbiter, one criterion is:
3.3 Sufficient knowledge of at least one official FIDE language.

There are seven FIDE languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Russian. So anyone from England should meet that criterion comfortably!

To be come an International Arbiter, one criterion is:
4.3 Obligatory knowledge of English language, minimum at conversation level; and of chess terms in other official FIDE languages.

Again, an English arbiter should be able to converse in English. I would consider the names of the pieces to be "chess terms", and so you would be expected to know the names of the pieces in some other official FIDE languages. For example, I can say the names of the pieces in Russian.

This is where games-inputting helps. I can read scoresheets in Cyrillic (i.e. Russian) fluently, and German near-fluently, just from my experience of that.

Anyway, it seems to me that International Arbiters are expected to be able to read scoresheets in algebraic notation, even in different FIDE languages.

Appendix C3 says: "For the first letter of the name of the pieces, each player is free to use the first letter of the name which is commonly used in his country. Examples: F=fou (French for bishop), L=loper (Dutch for bishop). In printed periodicals, the use of figurines for the pieces is recommended."

So the rules aren't totally clear as to what language you can write in - it says what you can use, but it doesn't say what you can't use. If an IA is expected to understand any official FIDE language, then it seems reasonable to me that as a player, I could write in any official FIDE language of my choosing.

To answer your question directly (at last!), the German player in an English tournament is entitled to use German. He might also be able to write in other languages, since there appears to be no absolute restriction.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What if someone mixed up letters from different languages? I've seen people use a mix of German and English piece letters in a single game score. It can get confusing if this happens with a sealed move. I know you think adjournments should be consigned to the dustbin of history, but that is one case where notation can matter! (imagine someone writing out long hand "my sealed move is moving my queen to capture my opponent's queen" - is that valid?).

[David Sedgwick]

If an IA is expected to understand any official FIDE language...

I think that goes rather beyond what would be expected. I doubt whether many European IAs would be able to understand a scoresheet written in Arabic. I would certainly struggle.

Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a scoresheet written in Arabic. Players I've encountered from Arabic speaking countries have always used either English or French.

The nomination form for arbiters at the forthcoming Olympiad asked for details of language skills, implying that it was a criterion that would be considered when selecting them. (I won't derail this thread by commenting on the reasonableness of this criterion compared with one which was actually used.)

[Alex Holowczak]

What if someone mixed up letters from different languages? I've seen people use a mix of German and English piece letters in a single game score. It can get confusing if this happens with a sealed move. I know you think adjournments should be consigned to the dustbin of history, but that is one case where notation can matter! (imagine someone writing out long hand "my sealed move is moving my queen to capture my opponent's queen" - is that valid?).

I've seen that in time scrambles; a player has brought his scoresheet up-to-date and written in English (by copying from his opponent's scoresheet) having written in German for all the other moves.

I'm no expert on adjournment rules. The only time I come across them is in the Birmingham League, you seal the scoresheets within the envelope. So I could quite happily seal Kf7, and because the preceding 30 moves were in Russian, it's clear that the K refers to a Knight, rather than a King. The key is that the move can't be ambiguous. "my sealed move is moving my queen to capture my opponent's queen" probably won't fit in the small gap provided!

[Ian Thompson]

I wonder if anyone bothers to use figurine notation, and draw figurines ...

I played someone 30 years ago who did this.