Bullying at chess

[Roger de Coverly]

Which raises the question, can you insist that your opponent correctly records their draw offer(s), and raise a complaint if they fail to do so?

Was it not added to the Laws of Chess that (=) should be used to annotate a move where a draw offer was made? So a request for enforcement to the arbiters has some justification.

[kishanpattni]

>>>>On another note I think somewhere on this topic there has been mention of moving very fast and slamming clocks. Whilst these things do happen I don't regard these to be forms of bullying in most cases.<<<<

FIDE Laws, article 6.7c reads "The players must handle the chess clock properly. It is forbidden to punch it forcibly ...". While there is nothing wrong with moving quickly, bashing the clock is definitely an offence (summon the arbiter).

I mentioned about slamming of clocks and i would now call an arbiter if this happened again to me in a long play chess game. Chess arbiters should be on the look out for this type of behaviour and intervene to stop it? At the time this happened to me i was less experienced with the rules of chess and did not want to cause a fuss. like the chap at Hasting who kept talking to me when it was my move now i would go and find the arbiter . I do not mind if my opponent wants to move fast as i be hoping he/she would make a blunder.
Most chess players play in a very sporting way win draw or lose.I have had to get drinks in a game and most of my opponents have waited for me to return to the board before moving a very sporting thing to do in my view.
I have always enjoyed the chess games i played against you Mike.

It is natural for a lot of players to press the clock harder or be a tiny bit louder during time pressure. If my opponent were under serious time pressure I might be lenient on them slamming the clock,

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Which raises the question, can you insist that your opponent correctly records their draw offer(s), and raise a complaint if they fail to do so?

Was it not added to the Laws of Chess that (=) should be used to annotate a move where a draw offer was made? So a request for enforcement to the arbiters has some justification.

Yeah, but you'd feel a bit of a wally asking them to do that. Though I must admit I did point out to my opponent once that they had written down the board number wrong on their scoresheet... (to be fair, this was the 4NCL where it can be important that the board numbers are correctly recorded).

[kishanpattni]

Which raises the question, can you insist that your opponent correctly records their draw offer(s), and raise a complaint if they fail to do so? I suppose to the standard "I'll think about it", must now be added "I'll think about it, can you please record your draw offer on your scoresheet" (to go with the oft-stated "Please make a move first" when people offer a draw at the wrong moment).[/quote]

I was not aware at the time of how to record a draw offer. It might have helped if I did but in no way would it be solid proof.

[Roger de Coverly]

Which raises the question, can you insist that your opponent correctly records their draw offer(s), and raise a complaint if they fail to do so?

I don't know about raising a complaint, but if the offer of a draw isn't recorded, you don't actually know that your opponent acknowledged your offer. This can be relevant if you are playing someone where you may not have a conversational language in common.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Though I must admit I did point out to my opponent once that they had written down the board number wrong on their scoresheet... (to be fair, this was the 4NCL where it can be important that the board numbers are correctly recorded).

The bulletin office likes this.

[Ian Kingston]

...He then decided to call over the arbiter before I had a chance to and claimed that I only just offered him a draw during my move and he had accepted whilst I was trying to withdraw my offer....

This is one reason why it's important to make a note of draw offers on your scoresheet. You'd have been able to point to written evidence of your version of events.

Although what if someone just marks a draw offer when you've said nothing? What if they claim that's what you've done. Still no way for the arbiter to know unless they've witnessed the events themselves - in which case the mark is redundant anyway.

The former is a possibility, but it would be very hard to time it just right to take advantage of a situation that might not actually occur.

The latter? You can't cater for everything. We're talking about an extremely rare kind of cheating, so I'd recommend just playing by the rules and not worrying too much about it.

[Ian Kingston]

I was not aware at the time of how to record a draw offer. It might have helped if I did but in no way would it be solid proof.

Not proof, but certainly evidence that an arbiter would be able to take into consideration. It definitely wouldn't hurt your case.

[Jonathan Bryant]

This reminds me of the only single example of outright cheating that I've ever experienced in 25 years or so of club and tournament chess.

A blitz tournament. My opponent placed a rook on c1 in such at way that the piece just touched the line between c1 and b1. I thought for about 20 seconds at which point my opponent "adjusted" the piece to b1.

When I objected and the tournament organiser came over my opponent simply denied that the piece was ever on c1. He said - with some truth - that it was 'on the line', but lied with his implication that it was some how 'half and half'.

The arbiter, faced with one player's word against the other situation did the only thing he could - argued that the game had to continue with the game as it stood. i.e. the rook on b1. I accepted the decision, but refused to finish the game.

[Patrick McGovern]

although this string has moved away from the original query many good points have been made. But please watch out for the serious bullying that does go on. Challenge the perp and inform the arbiter/controller. Cheers.