Headwear

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Phil Morgan
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Headwear

Post by Phil Morgan » Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:50 pm

The performances and appearance of Jeffery Xiong and Carissa Yip in the US Championship have been equally eye- catching. Jeffery's face is totally covered by his hoody and Carissa's by the peak of her baseball cap. Cricketers wear caps to cut out sunlight and aid concentration and racehorses can be equipped with a variety of blinkers, visors and hoods. Jeffery's and Carissa's headwear seem to help them keep in their cocoon of concentration and may also have a psychologically disarming effect on their opponents. Even elite players can be seen looking at opponent's faces for clues of their state of mind such as a furrowed brow. Such powerful play from a junior player whose face you can't see must be daunting.
Where did I put that ballaclava I had as a kid? Any other players used caps or hats to good effect?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Headwear

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:05 pm

Phil Morgan wrote: Any other players used caps or hats to good effect?
If organisers get paranoid about pens and watches being avenues for potential cheating, face and head coverings should be suspect as well. You will find detected cheats in the archives who used devices concealed in head wear.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/india-play ... r-cheating
Last edited by Roger de Coverly on Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Headwear

Post by Michael Farthing » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:11 pm

Soon we shall all be required to play naked.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Headwear

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:39 pm

I seem to recall that hats were regarded as illegal in some cases?

Reg Clucas
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Re: Headwear

Post by Reg Clucas » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:59 pm

Maybe this belongs on the 'Quality of club venues' thread, but I have played at venues in winter where a woolly hat was necessary!

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Headwear

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Apr 17, 2016 2:31 pm

The hoodie thing is just rude.
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Headwear

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Sun Apr 17, 2016 2:46 pm

Phil Morgan wrote:Any other players used caps or hats to good effect?
I don’t know about "good effect", but I have played in a cap for several years. The e2e4 crowdfunding page

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/e2e ... e=Facebook


has a photo of me in a St Lucia cap. This was from their Sunningdale tournament in 2011. I later moved on to an Alzheimer’s Society cap.


It’s surprising how much a baseball cap peak blocks out. I’m not sure if it really makes any difference to my results but it’s certainly more enjoyable to be able to play free from distractions.


I have yet to have anybody object to me wearing a cap, by the way.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Headwear

Post by Joey Stewart » Sun Apr 17, 2016 3:43 pm

Back in my university days we would frequently fall foul of one of the local teams whose 'winning formula' consisted of entering a team in division 3, working up to the top of division 2 (at which time they would enter a second side in div 3) and then withdraw the top team citing lack of players.
Lo and behold, those lost players would reappear a few weeks later in division 3 and the cycle would begin again.

anyway I always wanted to teach them a good lesson for this underhanded behaviour, and there is nothing better then cheating a cheat, so I came up with the idea of inventing a new team called the masked Joeys where our gimmick was to wear full face masks every match - thus making it easy to bring in strong reserves without anyone knowing.
A good idea, I thought, but I could never get enough people on board with it....
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Reg Clucas
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Re: Headwear

Post by Reg Clucas » Sun Apr 17, 2016 4:52 pm

Could certain headwear be classified as a distraction and therefore against the rules? I'm thinking principally of the face masks mentioned by Joey, but other headwear might qualify as well.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Headwear

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Apr 17, 2016 8:42 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote: You will find detected cheats in the archives who used devices concealed in head wear.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/india-play ... r-cheating
And some head wear, of course, which concealed no devices.
Reg Clucas wrote:Could certain headwear be classified as a distraction and therefore against the rules?
Maybe this

Image
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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AustinElliott
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Re: Headwear

Post by AustinElliott » Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:17 pm

Reg Clucas wrote:Maybe this belongs on the 'Quality of club venues' thread, but I have played at venues in winter where a woolly hat was necessary!
I recall a match at Chorlton when 3Cs 1 were the visitors, a couple of years back on a particularly cold Winter night, where most of the 3Cs junior crew were almost invisible inside oversized hoodies. They looked so 'uniform' sitting there in a Jedi-style hooded row that it became a bit of a running gag that season. I should say that all the home team were playing in coats and hats, and I'm pretty sure some were wearing gloves as well...

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Headwear

Post by Michael Farthing » Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:55 pm

Nothing is as bad as a player been electrocuted because it has been predicted that as a Ruy Lopez player he will play 3. B-N5 (as it the was then: Bb5 for the uninitiates).

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Headwear

Post by Stewart Reuben » Wed Apr 20, 2016 7:33 pm

11.5 states It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever.
My opponents do it repeatedly by playing good moves.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Headwear

Post by Michael Farthing » Wed Apr 20, 2016 8:15 pm

You will get no distractions from me then, Stewart

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Andy_Stoker
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Re: Headwear

Post by Andy_Stoker » Thu Apr 21, 2016 12:10 pm

Pal Benko wore sunglasses to counter the piercing stare of Mikhail Tal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKvy0spdWY4

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