Acceptable conduct

[Stewart Reuben]

When I was a young man Ted Isles was the poker room manager. He said that, if a player objected to a spectator wearing a white hat, he would deal with the distraction.
Is that far enough away from quoting chess rules for you?
If the list is endless, how do you expect each to be dealt with separately?
Clearing up sets and boards when there are games still in progress is an admin error. They can be taught better.
Adjusting pieces on the opponent's move will be dealt with specifically in the 2014 Laws.

[Graham Borrowdale]

[quote="Stewart Reuben"]If the list is endless, how do you expect each to be dealt with separately?

Stewart, that is my point, I don't expect there to be separate rules for any eventuality, I would just like to see an outbreak of common sense. I am not disagreeing with you.

[Matt Mackenzie]

So I pressed the clock with the wrong hand, what are you going to do about it? Nothing! Because nobody knows what you should do.

In an event under Arbiter supervision, you could complain. A time penalty might be appropriate, going beyond a warning. There are players, veteran ones even, who don't seem to have mastered the art of one-handed play. I'm not sure they get any advantage. What seems to happen is that they play a move, then several seconds later remember that they are playing with a clock and hit the clock with their nearest hand.

I am one of those

[Paolo Casaschi]

What seems to happen is that they play a move, then several seconds later remember that they are playing with a clock and hit the clock with their nearest hand.

...and what would be the point of complaining about that, apart from being pedantic and intentionally annoying your opponent (that btw is also explicitly forbidden by the rules)?

[IM Jack Rudd]

What seems to happen is that they play a move, then several seconds later remember that they are playing with a clock and hit the clock with their nearest hand.

...and what would be the point of complaining about that, apart from being pedantic and intentionally annoying your opponent (that btw is also explicitly forbidden by the rules)?

Quite. The point of the rule is to prevent players from gaining an advantage by playing a move and hitting the clock simultaneously; the players who forget the clock are obviously not gaining any advantage by doing so.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I dunno. If anyone says that XYZ annoys them, those playing them might intentionally do XYZ... (it 'annoys' me when people play badly against me!). It is actually annoying when someone forgets to press the clock. I do genuinely find it distracting if I find myself politely reminding them more than once or twice.

[Michael Farthing]

I dunno. If anyone says that XYZ annoys them, those playing them might intentionally do XYZ... (it 'annoys' me when people play badly against me!). It is actually annoying when someone forgets to press the clock. I do genuinely find it distracting if I find myself politely reminding them more than once or twice.

Penalty of being a Gentleman.

[John Swain]

What seems to happen is that they play a move, then several seconds later remember that they are playing with a clock and hit the clock with their nearest hand.

...and what would be the point of complaining about that, apart from being pedantic and intentionally annoying your opponent (that btw is also explicitly forbidden by the rules)?

Quite. The point of the rule is to prevent players from gaining an advantage by playing a move and hitting the clock simultaneously; the players who forget the clock are obviously not gaining any advantage by doing so.

I would go further and say that the point is to prevent a dispute arising over whether a player pressed his clock before making the move, which obviously cannot happen if the same hand is used.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I would go further and say that the point is to prevent a dispute arising over whether a player pressed his clock before making the move, which obviously cannot happen if the same hand is used.

On the contrary. I once played somebody who repeatedly used one hand to move the pieces and the other to press the clock. After repeated requests that he desist he did start to use the same hand ... but he then proceeded to to press the clock as he moved his hand toward the piece he wanted to move - and not on the way back as is considered traditional.


This was after he’d knocked over the pieces and pressed the clock without setting them up and tried to start debate over whether we’d made the time control whilst my clock was ticking (he hadn’t been recording the moves) etc.


After the game he claimed that he didn’t know you had to move and press the clock with the same hand. I felt this was unlikely to be true. Partly because he’s been playing for decades, but mostly because he’d claimed exactly the same thing when I called him on it the season before.

[Paolo Casaschi]

A question: is it allowed/acceptable for a player to adjust his opponent pieces?
It happened to me a couple of times already that my opponent, after most of my moves, would immediately adjust the piece I just moved; I guess some kind of compulsion to have the pieces exactly at the center of the board. Is this allowed by the rule or each player should adjust only his own pieces?

[Barry Sandercock]

This thread seems to have drifted off the original query. We still don't know what the query actually referred to.

[Stewart Reuben]

He is allowed to adjust his opponent's pieces - in his own time. Obviously consistently doing so could be annoying.

Two players at one British championships met. One insisted that the knights be pointed forward. The other that they be turned sideways on.
The arbiter 'solved' the problem by allowing each player to align his own knights the way they liked.
Shortly afterwards they agreed a draw.

I guess the original query was a general one and has been amply answered.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A question: is it allowed/acceptable for a player to adjust his opponent pieces?
It happened to me a couple of times already that my opponent, after most of my moves, would immediately adjust the piece I just moved; I guess some kind of compulsion to have the pieces exactly at the center of the board. Is this allowed by the rule or each player should adjust only his own pieces?

It is allowed, though technically only the player whose move it is should be adjusting pieces (though surely if the piece is out of kilter far enough, it should be adjusted regardless of whose move it is, both to prevent misunderstanding of the position and to allow the player not on the move to analyse without the distraction of a misplaced piece?). Doing this every move could be construed as a distraction. My rule of thumb is if a piece if off-centre but no part of the piece is outside its square, and you want to adjust it, then wait until it is your move. If part of the piece is outside its square, then you may be justified in pointing this out even when it is not your move.

It depends on the circumstances, though - if your opponent is in severe time trouble and bashing pieces down that need adjusting every move, not sure what can be done. Most players follow an etiquette that if you bash down carelessly and/or knock over a piece, you replace it/adjust it before pressing the clock.

Stewart, are you saying that if a piece is far enough off centre that it could disturb a player trying to analyse the position, that the player has no recourse at all and has to wait until it is his or her move to adjust it? Surely there is the option of stopping the clocks and pointing out the problem?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I guess some kind of compulsion to have the pieces exactly at the center of the board.

Ahem. Centre of its square, not the board! (visions of all the pieces crammed into the central four squares)

[Stewart Reuben]

Christopher >It depends on the circumstances, though - if your opponent is in severe time trouble and bashing pieces down that need adjusting every move, not sure what can be done. Most players follow an etiquette that if you bash down carelessly and/or knock over a piece, you replace it/adjust it before pressing the clock.

Stewart, are you saying that if a piece is far enough off centre that it could disturb a player trying to analyse the position, that the player has no recourse at all and has to wait until it is his or her move to adjust it? Surely there is the option of stopping the clocks and pointing out the problem?<

The first is not just etiquette. It is in the Laws.

The second. How about saying to your opponent, 'excuse me', and adjusting the errant piece? The Laws are supposed to be commonsense, not rigid.

I have seen somebody doing the parlour trick of putting all 32 pieces in a column on one square. Sadly, this was not during a game.