Most Annoying Behaviour?

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David Grobler
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by David Grobler » Tue May 31, 2011 7:55 pm

There was a very annoying Junior playing on the bottom boards of the Sunningdale Major last weekend . He continually felt the urge to re-position his pieces announcing "ADJUST" rather loudly as he did so . His record was a four piece combination....."ADJUST...ADJUST...ADJUST....ADJUST" . :x

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Paolo Casaschi
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Tue May 31, 2011 8:16 pm

Ken McNulty wrote:I was wondering what people find the most annoying thing(s) when they are playing a competetive match. Whether it's an individual club match, or a team event.
I think this thread is missing a point IMHO fundamental to chess as an amateur sport.
In my experience, there are very few reusable skill that a player develops in the chess world and that can be of any use in real live: one of them though is the (developed) ability to concentrate on your task regardless of the surrounding environment.
Maybe better not to complain too much about annoying behaviors and simply go on with your game...

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Stewart Reuben » Tue May 31, 2011 9:46 pm

Matt Ward >Stewart Regarding your last comment, I would assume common sense would suggest it has to be a male or female.<

Some people are hermaphrodites. John Upham has already pointed out that he may be confused concerning the gender of his opponent.
Vlastimil Hort to me at the Lloyds Bank Masters, playing against Cramling. 'Is it he or she?' This was a perfectly reasonable question. Dan Cramling and Pia were both IMs of similar playing strength. She dressed in trousers when 17 and was very flat-chested. The correct answer was 'she'.

none of this was at all annoying for anybody.
Stewart Reuben

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue May 31, 2011 9:49 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:John Upham has already pointed out that he may be confused concerning the gender of his opponent.
Or even, the sex of his opponent. :wink:

(Well, this is a thread about annoying behaviour, so surely I'm obliged to annoyingly point out a grammar mistake?)

Mike Truran
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Mike Truran » Tue May 31, 2011 10:42 pm

I don't feel under any obligation to point out the split infinitive (which I expect was intentional) and the unnecessary comma after "even" (which I expect wasn't). However, I shall do it anyway. :lol:

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue May 31, 2011 11:27 pm

Mike Truran wrote:I don't feel under any obligation to point out the split infinitive (which I expect was intentional) and the unnecessary comma after "even" (which I expect wasn't). However, I shall do it anyway. :lol:
The split infinitive was indeed intentional. I wondered how long it'd take for someone to spot it. :lol:

The comma was a dramatic pause for effect. Honest. :oops:

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Gareth Harley-Yeo
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Gareth Harley-Yeo » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:04 pm

David Grobler wrote:There was a very annoying Junior playing on the bottom boards of the Sunningdale Major last weekend . He continually felt the urge to re-position his pieces announcing "ADJUST" rather loudly as he did so . His record was a four piece combination....."ADJUST...ADJUST...ADJUST....ADJUST" . :x
Surely the guy who kept squeaking his foot against the chair on the sunday was worse? when both myself and my opponent were down to 2mins each in a very complicated endgame the last thing either of us needed was the sound of a seemingly rampant rodent scurrying around going "EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK".

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:14 pm

Gareth Harley-Yeo wrote:
David Grobler wrote:There was a very annoying Junior playing on the bottom boards of the Sunningdale Major last weekend . He continually felt the urge to re-position his pieces announcing "ADJUST" rather loudly as he did so . His record was a four piece combination....."ADJUST...ADJUST...ADJUST....ADJUST" . :x
Surely the guy who kept squeaking his foot against the chair on the sunday was worse? when both myself and my opponent were down to 2mins each in a very complicated endgame the last thing either of us needed was the sound of a seemingly rampant rodent scurrying around going "EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK".
Oh yes. I wondered what that sound was. It just came out of nowhere.

matt_ward
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by matt_ward » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:41 am

Perhaps he played a good move.

Notice I assume it was a male.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:58 am

A (presumably police) helicopter has just spent the last 10 minutes hovering over the area where I live. The noise was very distracting as I was trying to enter some chess games from a recent event (I now have great sympathy for the 4NCL game inputters). Has anyone ever had that happen in a chess match, or had a chess game disturbed by aircraft or traffic noises?

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Stewart Reuben » Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:43 am

USSR v Rest of the World Match 1984 held in the Docklands. We started the games peacefully. 10 minutes later an enormous man started driving piles into the ground using a hammer. The late Bob Wade and I looked at each other. We weren't going out there to tell him to stop. So the games were 'adjourned'. The CEO told them to stop for the rest of the day and the games continued after about 10 minutes.
Lothar Schmidt told me he had to stop games in the Candidates because of a stink bomb.
Fire alarms have often stopped play. That is an English disease. David Sedgwick claims it is all hi fault.
Lights going out.
Rain stopped play in one open air simul.
When somebody dies at the board it tends to distract people.
Were my defibrillator to go off that would probably be disconcerting. It hasn't happen to me so I would be quite likely to fall off my chair in surprise.
Occasionally children are sick at the board.
The ultimate one would be a woman giving birth.
When we first learnt of the term subliminal, BH Wood used to whisper into the microphone ads for his magazine at his congress. The late W Ritson Morry wouldn't have minded. He used to listen to cricket commentary during his chess games.
Stewart Reuben

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John Clarke
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by John Clarke » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:30 am

Stewart Reuben wrote:The late W Ritson Morry ..... used to listen to cricket commentary during his chess games.
By earphone, of course. Wouldn't have been allowed to do it nowadays, would he?!!
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

Paul Cooksey

Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:32 am

It snowed on my board in one particularly ropey church hall :)

But if it is an opponent, there was a (non-English) model/ WGM doing a series of ostentatious stretching exercises at the 4NCL near my board a couple of years ago. It wasn't quite the décolletage gambit, since she gave the impression she had a sports injury. But I did fear for the heart of one of my older team mates, until he agreed a draw and ran away :)

Scott Freeman
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Scott Freeman » Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:38 am

QUOTE Occasionally children are sick at the board.
In a recent CCF congress (I think on a day I wasn't there), I was told that one of our juniors wasn't feeling well, came out the back and threw up out the back - but thankfully not at the board! However, having been sick he returned to the board and won!

QUOTE The ultimate one would be a woman giving birth.
Now that would be breaking the record for the youngest player at a chess tournament!

Michael Jones
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Re: Most Annoying Behaviour?

Post by Michael Jones » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:46 pm

Paolo Casaschi wrote:
Ken McNulty wrote:I was wondering what people find the most annoying thing(s) when they are playing a competetive match. Whether it's an individual club match, or a team event.
I think this thread is missing a point IMHO fundamental to chess as an amateur sport.
In my experience, there are very few reusable skill that a player develops in the chess world and that can be of any use in real live: one of them though is the (developed) ability to concentrate on your task regardless of the surrounding environment.
Maybe better not to complain too much about annoying behaviors and simply go on with your game...
I think I've managed to develop this ability, primarily through the experience of school lessons/university lectures so confusing that they required absolute concentration for me to have even the slightest chance of understanding the content; friends have commented that it's almost impossible to get my attention when I'm concentrating on something else. Thus I can honestly say that I can't remember any instance of being distracted by either an opponent's or spectator's behaviour - the one distraction I did have was an external one (the sun was in my eyes; the arbiter agreed to move the game to a different board).
Simon Ansell wrote:I once had an opponent leave the board for some time during the game and return with a McDonalds bag. He asked me if he minded him eating at the board, I thought nothing particularly unusual and said no. He then proceded to remove the bread from his Big Mac and eat the burgers, sauce, gherkins and all. At the board. With his fingers. Didn't bother to wipe his hands at all.

He shall remain nameless but it was an American player at the Lloyds Bank Masters sometime in the 80's. I was only 14 or 15. The only time I've refused to shake hands with my opponent after a game...

Happily I won the game!
My last squash opponent refused to shake hands after the game; given that the grip on my racket had disintegrated, leaving my right hand covered in little bits of black rubber, I couldn't really blame him!

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