Match Annoyances

[Roger de Coverly]

Do others share my annoyance at clubs where they insist on putting boards and sets away while the rest of the match is still in progress? Inevitably you get a disturbing clatter of pieces towards the end of the evening when players are likely to be short of time and playing on the increment. It's even worse if the cupboard is immediately behind the players.

My preference is to do it Congress style. Thus reset the pieces and then clear them back into the box or bag once the final game has concluded.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Quite obviously you should never disturb games in progress. If you must do this, do it extremely quietly. Resetting the pieces helps avoid inadvertent mixing up of sets or ending up with incomplete sets.

[J T Melsom]

It is a discourtesy to those still playing, and I try to discourage it at my own club. It always seems worst at a county match where having half the room cleared (including furniture) while the outcome is unknown grates a little. Nevertheless those doing this often have relatively few volunteers staying to the end to assist, or present to help set up the match, and often venues need to be vacated in a timely manner. So my irritation is almost never expressed, but there is usually a better way.

[Peter Ackley]

If done carefully sets can be put in containers with very little noise. However, equally, regardless of care it can be just as annoying when equipment starts moving in your eyeline when you don't expect it. From a player point of view I'll comment if someone is being noisy about it but let it slide if they are trying to be as quiet as possible. As a "putter awayerer" I'll normally only do it (carefully) if there is no adjacent active board. As other posters have noted you don't always know the situation of the home club, the major one being when do they need to be out of the venue? Also let's not forget for many clubs the last one to finish may well end up being the last one present and have to put everything away on their own (which might include tables and chairs as well).

Much more annoying is the players that finish then start a detailed conversation with their opponent. I don't mind a few sentences and when it gets to paragraphs most realise their mistake after a quick "shush" but I've found several people have started an in-depth, full volume analysis, and have responded with "but we've finished...".

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The noise of sets being put away used to annoy me a lot when I was a league player. I disagree that sets can be put into containers with very little noise, no matter how carefully it is done, and I never understood why people thought it was OK to put away the sets if they weren't actually adjacent to the board of the people still playing, as if the sound wouldn't carry more than a couple of feet! After concentrating on a game for a couple of hours I think we get into a zone where we are more sensitive to distractions, but that might also be because we're simply getting tired.

Whilst it takes quite a bit of time to set up a chess set, perhaps as long as minute, it takes seconds to put one away if you don't have to worry about being quiet. So if it's just a matter of putting away the chess sets, it's far better to wait until all the games are finished. However some clubs have to move furniture, for example folding tables, and I have a bit more sympathy if that's the case.

[NickFaulks]

I do sympathise with the general thrust of this thread. However, it has been my observation over decades of club play that the people complaining most vigorously about such noise do tend to be those who would never dream of doing any of the putting away work themselves.

[NickFaulks]

My preference is to do it Congress style.

You mean, pay people to do it.

[Kevin Thurlow]

As for tournaments, twice I have been playing the last game to finish in the last round. At Guernsey, people worked quietly dismantling the room around us, whilst Rolf Dijksterhuis and I tried desperately to win and ended up with K vs K. At Hastings, I had R+ some pawns each and played on. When I went for a toilet break, I was intercepted by the chief organiser, who instructed me to offer a draw, as he and his colleagues wanted to go home. I think that was more annoying! I was incredibly polite to him (told him it was illegal to discuss the game) - I suspect some people would have left him in a pool of blood. Anyway, when he handed me my prize, I told him to learn rook endings. He looked quite annoyed.

I had one club colleague who went "SHUSHH!!!!" every time someone breathed, then discussed his game at the top of his voice when he had finished. Actually, that is quite common.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Much more annoying is the players that finish then start a detailed conversation with their opponent. I don't mind a few sentences and when it gets to paragraphs most realise their mistake after a quick "shush" but I've found several people have started an in-depth, full volume analysis, and have responded with "but we've finished...".

You always seem to get a club member or two who SPEAKS VERY LOUDLY as a matter of course.....

[MSoszynski]

I do sympathise with the general thrust of this thread. However, it has been my observation over decades of club play that the people complaining most vigorously about such noise do tend to be those who would never dream of doing any of the putting away work themselves.

Quite. In evening leagues, many players don't even reset the pieces to their starting positions, so it's harder to see at a glance if anything is missing. Meanwhile, the one or two people (like me) who are left to put the sets away and rearrange the furniture (whether or not they're involved in the match) are not going to wait till the last second of the last game (which nowadays has increments, so the end-time isn't certain) before doing anything. We have homes to go to. You don't like the noise? How about you stay behind well past 10pm to clear up! Come to that, where were you when I was setting up the equipment long before you arrived?

Grr.

[Roger de Coverly]

Meanwhile, the one or two people (like me) who are left to put the sets away and rearrange the furniture (whether or not they're involved in the match) are not going to wait till the last second of the last game (which nowadays has increments, so the end-time isn't certain) before doing anything.

The players in the last game to finish will be present and they are the ones most likely to suffer from any disturbance. It's when that game finishes that those remaining are free to discuss what happened in the match.

I know one player who boycotts an away venue on this very issue of their habit of clearing up with games in progress.

Opinions evidently are divided. When I am match captain I would stay to the end and discourage any attempt to clear up other than resetting the pieces.

[MSoszynski]

When I am match captain I would stay to the end and discourage any attempt to clear up other than resetting the pieces.

At home, you can do that. But when you discourage people from helping, you quickly discover that they won’t offer again. By the time the last games have finished, they will have left anyway. Worse still, they may feel they have already “done their bit” simply by offering to help, or by starting to help before being waved away.

Some of the guys sitting at the boards seem to think the chess sets magically appear at the start of the evening and just as magically disappear at the end. Meanwhile, they — the poor things — are burdened with the "real" work of navigating a rook ending or whatever. Let’s be clear: we’re not talking about professionals agonising over Elo points here. We’re talking about unpaid, unthanked volunteers, with homes to go to, who make local league chess possible at all.

[Andrew Zigmond]

I was going to post along the same lines as M Soszynski above. It is often the same players who turn up early to set up and then stay behind to clear up afterwards with others just drifting in at the last minute to play their game and then shooting off as soon as it concludes. While there might be legitimate reasons for this such players may want to help by at least clearing their own set away.

The size of the match is also a factor. If its a 4/5 board match clearing the sets away is only a five minute job even for one person. A 20 board match is a bit more problematic and as somebody said earlier whether the tables need to go away as well is a factor.

I have to admit that at matches I try to retrieve the unused clocks as soon as I can so these can at least go away. I also feel a bit like a bar back at our current venue sometimes as I'm the one carrying glasses and mugs downstairs to be washed.

[Ian Thompson]

As other posters have noted you don't always know the situation of the home club, the major one being when do they need to be out of the venue?

You might not know the answer to that question, but what you do know is that it is the home team's responsibility to find a suitable venue for the match. If they've chosen somewhere where there is/might be insufficient time to pack up after the match, that's a failing on their part for which they should be held responsible.

[MSoszynski]

As other posters have noted you don't always know the situation of the home club, the major one being when do they need to be out of the venue?

You might not know the answer to that question, but what you do know is that it is the home team's responsibility to find a suitable venue for the match. If they've chosen somewhere where there is/might be insufficient time to pack up after the match, that's a failing on their part for which they should be held responsible.

"Held responsible," eh? Why, what are you going to do to them?

In any case, never mind the need to be out of the venue, what about the need to get home well before midnight?