Special requirements/disability

[Paul McKeown]

lol

[Paul McKeown]

You descriptive prescriptive

[Paul McKeown]

Chess players, eh? They would drive you to drink.

[Alex Holowczak]

Chess players, eh? They would drive you to drink.

Well, they haven't managed to do that yet!

[Stewart Reuben]

I never did understand what busines it was of FIDE ro require algebraic notation. A rule written for move inputters and could have been left to the individual organisers. Since most games, other than FIDE Rated, are lost to the world forever, the whole business about keeping score is rather futile.
But it is a long time since I was arbiter at a congress where FIDE Rating was not done for at least some of the event.
I have given permission for players to use descriptive notation in international tournaments in which they participated. This extended to events with which I had nothing to do. One British master had beautifully clear scoresheets in descriptive. In algebraic they were pitiful.
It can also be desirable to relieve a player of the requirement to keep score where he visibly has problems, whatever those problems may be. Keeping score doesn't upset Korchnoi, but what is the point? The sheet is totally illegible.
Stewart Reuben

[Brendan O'Gorman]

Martyn,

There are several older congress players that continue to use descriptive without problems. Alex McFarlane's is a more typical arbiter's reaction than Alex Holowczak's. Don't worry about it.

[Alex Holowczak]

Martyn,

There are several older congress players that continue to use descriptive without problems. Alex McFarlane's is a more typical arbiter's reaction than Alex Holowczak's. Don't worry about it.

Thankyou
To be honest, my only real concern was if I happened to enter (and there is always the chance!) an internationally rated competition, and I thought that Blackpool came into that category

Blackpool isn't internationally rated. If you entered an internationally-rated competition in England (possibly British Isles), Brendan's answer is still correct.

[Mick Norris]

Chess players, eh? They would drive you to drink.

In my experience, not many drive you anywhere

[Michele Clack]

I started playing chess just as the new notation was coming in but was taught descriptive by other club members. Then I decided to try algebraic and found it so much eaier I wished I'd used it from the start. The other interesting thing was that found I saw the board more clearly as each square had it's own "name".

[Michele Clack]

True about the drivers Mick! One local club wanted to put in an extra team in a league as they had loads of players to play but it turned out no one could drive.

[Michele Clack]

Getting back on topic, if a player can't write his moves down for whatever reason what happens if he wants to claim a draw because the position has been, or is about to be, reached three times?

[Alex Holowczak]

Getting back on topic, if a player can't write his moves down for whatever reason what happens if he wants to claim a draw because the position has been, or is about to be, reached three times?

He stops the clock and calls over the arbiter. It seems reasonable to me that in this case the player can say, rather than write down, "I'm about to play x, and this is a three-fold repetition." He can still claim that the position on the board is a three-fold repetition regardless of recording the moves. The arbiter than asks his opponent if he accepts a draw; if he accepts there's no need to go through the rigmarole of checking it. (A three-fold repetition claim is also a draw offer.) If the opponent declines, you go through the reconstruction to see if a three-fold repetition occurred and from then on normal rules apply.

[Alex McFarlane]

Alex H - I assume you mean a two fold repetition of the position. If the position has been repeated twice then it has occurred three times.

I hope this pedantry has aged you by another few months (and possibly prevented EMW from correcting you)!

[Alex Holowczak]

Alex H - I assume you mean a two fold repetition of the position. If the position has been repeated twice then it has occurred three times.

I hope this pedantry has aged you by another few months (and possibly prevented EMW from correcting you)!

On the bright side, you didn't correct the advice I gave on what to do in this situation, which means I'm probably right.

[Michele Clack]

This could get a bit messy in a league game with no arbiter present. What if the players don't agree.