Away player excluded

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Jonathan, I think you've misunderstood. It is not the player who is losing that has walked away and allowed his flag to fall. It is the player who was winning and (for various reasons, this is why I said it was complicated) thought his opponent had resigned and/or he was able to claim a win. For equally complicated reasons, his opponent thought the game was still going on. It was a mutual misunderstanding (I think both players genuinely misunderstood each other), but as the guy who thought he had won had left the venue (and hadn't stopped the clocks), it was difficult to know what to do. I wasn't captain, but ever since then (in the team that I do captain) I've made sure to check with both my player and the opposing captain what the result of a game was, and get a bit annoyed when my players leave the venue without letting me know the result of their game.

[Kevin Thurlow]

There was a player who used to play at Guernsey, who was in the habit of disappearing for ages during the game and had picked up a warning for doing so (especially as he left the venue). One day he did this again, then rushed back when he would have had five minutes for about 20 moves, then there was panic as he couldn't find his board. The arbiter strolled over and explained he had been defaulted an hour or so earlier!

[Jonathan Bryant]

Jonathan, I think you've misunderstood. It is not the player who is losing that has walked away and allowed his flag to fall. It is the player who was winning and (for various reasons, this is why I said it was complicated) thought his opponent had resigned and/or he was able to claim a win ....

No, I did understand. That was the situation I was in as the winner. My opponent was clearly not playing on so I could have left - and did. But then, he could have come back at any point and waited for my flag to fall.

I accept the circumstances that brought this about were different, though and in the case you cite it was brought about by some kind of misunderstanding rather than bad sportsmanship as in mine.

[Ola Winfridsson]

Just can't get my head around that kind of behaviour - is winning so important to them?

[Alan Kennedy]

Game was as follows:-


1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 a6 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Nxe5 Qd4 7. Nf3
Bg4 8. Nxd4

I have never been that lucky - would you like to send him to Oxfordshire I could do with a few eight move wins!

[Jonathan Bryant]

... I could do with a few eight move wins!

I could do with a win of any sort, just now.