Do you say "Check" or not??

[Alex Holowczak]

Regarding the results of the actual poll, I'm surprised at how many people don't say check.

[John Anderson]

Regarding the results of the actual poll, I'm surprised at how many people say check.

[John Upham]

Regarding the results of the poll, I'm surprised at how many people think about whether to announce check or not.

[John Moore]

I play a mix of people- from about 100ECF to about 220. Only one strong player says check. He is seriously strong. He may be the only player above 150 who says check still.

I don't expect my opponent to indicate his last move if I am away from the board. But I don't shout at him if he does.

When I resign, I stop the clock or shake hands or both. Sometimes, I then offer my opponent a beer unless they are underage or female.

[Nick Thomas]

I can think of 4 games where my opponent didn't say check and I didn't notice and lost by touching a ridiculous piece (and losing it and the game). The last one was against Murray Chandler about 2 or 3 moves after he offered a draw. I AM STILL ANGRY ABOUT THEM ALL

[John Upham]

I AM STILL ANGRY ABOUT THEM ALL

Who are you annoyed with? Yourself or your opponents?

[Nick Thomas]

Hadn't thought about that

[Richard Thursby]

I follow Kasparov's lead. I saw American Gambit many years ago, in which he didn't announce check, and in his solitary loss to Short in their 1993 World Championship match he resigned by stopping his clock. Sadly my chess ability doesn't match Kasparov's.

Sometimes, I then offer my opponent a beer unless they are underage or female.

Since when did females not drink beer? You could offer them a drink and let them decide whether they would like beer/cider/wine/vodka/orange juice/something else. I was mildly amused when playing a match a week before my twenty-first birthday and my opponent put a J next to my name on his score sheet because he thought I was a junior. When I pointed it out afterwards he said that from his perspective everyone under 30 was a junior!

[Kevin Thurlow]

A team-mate was rather startled a few years ago when his opponent adjusted a misplaced piece and said, "En passant". My colleague decided that he would accept any phrase in a foreign language as meaning "J'adoube", so played on.

Be wary though if you are winning and an opponent mumbles something before adjusting a piece, you nod to show you heard, then they write draw on the scoresheet and run off to report the result.

[Alex Holowczak]

Be wary though if you are winning and an opponent mumbles something before adjusting a piece, you nod to show you heard, then they write draw on the scoresheet and run off to report the result.

A junior played a similar deceptive trick on me. They knocked a piece over before pressing the clock. As I went to pick it up without saying "j'adoube", he immediately cried "Touch move!"

Inexperienced juniors often tend to shout "Touch move!" if you touch a piece then take your hand off it. Even if your Queen is en prise, and you touched it...

[Sean Hewitt]

Be wary though if you are winning and an opponent mumbles something before adjusting a piece, you nod to show you heard, then they write draw on the scoresheet and run off to report the result.

A junior played a similar deceptive trick on me. They knocked a piece over before pressing the clock. As I went to pick it up without saying "j'adoube", he immediately cried "Touch move!"

Inexperienced juniors often tend to shout "Touch move!" if you touch a piece then take your hand off it. Even if your Queen is en prise, and you touched it...

Ah, the poor misinformed junior. Their ruse should not work for a simple reason ; in order to enforce touch move the player must touch the piece with the intention of moving it. If you pick up a knocked over piece your intention is to restore the piece rather than move it, and so no arbiter should make you move it even if you did not say "j'adoube".

But I would advise you to say "j'adoube" just in case!

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Sometimes, I then offer my opponent a beer unless they are underage or female.

I would only offer my opponent a drink if they are female.

[Ben Purton]

Yes but your not a Gentlemen Gareth like the Gentlemen John Moore.

[Alex Holowczak]

Perhaps given the male:female player ratio, Gareth's way of doing it makes more economic sense.

[Arshad Ali]

Ah, the poor misinformed junior. Their ruse should not work for a simple reason ...

He may even know it and is but trying to use an underhanded trick. From what I'm reading here it seems the new generation is composed of incorrigible cheats.