English Chess Forum

The Chess Scotland forum is reporting the refusal of an unnamed player to have their game go out on a live board at a recent weekend Congress. This is apparently because the experts in preparation would have additional material to work on. This is quite true and equally applies when a Congress is very quick at loading the pgns of previous rounds. It's only a modernised form of a daily bulletin after all.

http://www.chessscotland.com/forum/view ... ?f=4&t=504

Any sightings of similar refusals in England? Many players are flattered that their humble efforts are being broadcast to the world. I don't know whether viewing figures are unavailable or just not published. An audience in single figures might be deflating.

It isn't usually a condition of entry that you have to agree to your game being broadcast, although it could be, particularly for players getting special deals for titled players.

Bit odd really, I mean it is quite common for pgn files to be loaded up on a website somewhere even during a tournament. Would this player then object to that? Or having a game published in a book? Where does it end?

Still, there you go I suppose there must be another side to it. However, I would think most people would be rather chuffed at having their game shown live. I'm not sure what would happen if someone at the London Classic refused to have their games shown live!

I always tell my wife when I am on a live board. Sadly, it only happened once and she fell asleep.

Roger - I assume the unknown player was fairly weak. Otherwise his games would be available.

On a database I mean

The player was an IM so not so weak.

Roger de Coverly wrote:The Chess Scotland forum is reporting the refusal of an unnamed player to have their game go out on a live board at a recent weekend Congress. This is apparently because the experts in preparation would have additional material to work on. This is quite true and equally applies when a Congress is very quick at loading the pgns of previous rounds. It's only a modernised form of a daily bulletin after all.

http://www.chessscotland.com/forum/view ... ?f=4&t=504

Any sightings of similar refusals in England? Many players are flattered that their humble efforts are being broadcast to the world. I don't know whether viewing figures are unavailable or just not published. An audience in single figures might be deflating.

It isn't usually a condition of entry that you have to agree to your game being broadcast, although it could be, particularly for players getting special deals for titled players.

What if his opponent had refused to play without his game being transmitted live?
For an amateur it might be a matter of pride having a game on the live boards; when reaching board one on an event with live boards there might be an expectation of having the game shown on the live website.

I would have understood it if the organiser just said 'Hey, this is the equipment provided for use in this tournament. Use it or forfeit.'

The live boards were a surprise to all participants, their availability not even having been known to the tournament organisers until shortly before the first round. The player in question,a long time and much respected IM, who has contributed a lot to CS, appears to have been trying a 'new' set of openings.

In fact this man is the titled player who is the most frequent participant on the Scottish weekend circuit, cut him a little slack please.

Andy McCulloch wrote: The player in question, a lomg time and much respected IM, appears to have been trying out a 'new' set of openings.

Any of the players in the Open might have been doing the same. Maybe it just says that Congresses should pre-announce whether games are going to be recorded for posterity. If the event is Internationally rated, a record of the games is expected if not demanded.

In general, players have to live with the idea that Congresses will promote themselves by releasing games to the outside world. That, on balance, is better than the alternative, where events insist on secrecy or payment to access paper copies.

Every year many of the Oban Congress games are recorded via duplicate scoresheets and are subsequently made available on the CS website. A large number of the games of the player in question are available from this resource. No one has complained. This year was exceptional, the live boards were not expected, although they have been at many other events, and have been advertised as such.

Much to my surprise, a couple of my own games are available from the year I got to 3/3 in the Minor, when sadly, from my point of view, I finished on 3/5.

Don't be too surprised Andy, I've got nine of your games on my database! From Oban, Edinburgh Knights, Dundee and Prestwick.

Alex McFarlane wrote:The player was an IM so not so weak.

IMs can be weak

LawrenceCooper wrote:

Alex McFarlane wrote:The player was an IM so not so weak.

IMs can be weak

No they can't. They can only be slightly less strong.

A player moaning from Scotland.....must be a first surely