English Chess Forum

Are there any guidelines on acceptable conduct at a chess match?

Francis

Sorry to be nosey, but has anything in particular prompted this query?

Basically yes. You must not make any unnecessary noise.

There are quite a lot of others, some of them now embedded in the rules:

You are expected to shake your opponents hand at the start of a game (or other similar greeting determined by local custom).

You should not do anything to distract your opponent, particularly in his time.

You should not repeatedly offer draws (this can be seen as an example of the previous 'rule')

You should arrive in time for the start of the game (or give an apology in cases beyond your control)

..and there are plenty of things that courteous players wouldn't dream of doing, but which I won't repeat here for fear of giving ideas to the discourteous ones.

The FIDE Laws of Chess include several relevant points. If the issue is one of unacceptable noise by the opponent, the following Laws are relevant:


Article 12: The conduct of the players

12.1
The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute.

12.6
It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. This includes unreasonable claims, unreasonable offers of a draw or the introduction of a source of noise into the playing area.

12.99
It is forbidden for Black to play, or enter into via transposition of moves, the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez.

I also, would like to know if anything in particular prompted the original query.

Barry Sandercock wrote:I also, would like to know if anything in particular prompted the original query.

Afternoon all

Yes i like to know what prompted the query about acceptable conduct? i remember a player who i will not name who used to cough a lot when playing weaker chess players but he never appeared to cough as much when playing much stronger chess players

Time for tea and to listen to this wonderfull piece of music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIeA-ETWk0I

I had a particularly arrogant player at a Yorkshire league match last season who I assume thought he was going to trounce me and used various unnerving tactics, including refusal to sit at the board (or even in the room, he stood outside, peeping round the corner of the door, to see if his clock was pressed).

He was only a 130 (id had a terrible season the year before and was using a 107 grade) and suffice to say he got rather upset when he found himself to be dropping a Rook or getting mated.

Also curious about the original incident, these are always a giggle

12.6 It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever.

I always think all my opponents are guilty of infringing this law. They are trying to make good moves.

Francis Fields wrote:Are there any guidelines on acceptable conduct at a chess match?

There are both written and unwritten rules. If there's a specific incident, a description might be helpful.

The "rules" are pretty meaningless without sanctions to back them up. So I pressed the clock with the wrong hand, what are you going to do about it? Nothing! Because nobody knows what you should do.

Joey Stewart wrote: So I pressed the clock with the wrong hand, what are you going to do about it? Nothing! Because nobody knows what you should do.

In an event under Arbiter supervision, you could complain. A time penalty might be appropriate, going beyond a warning. There are players, veteran ones even, who don't seem to have mastered the art of one-handed play. I'm not sure they get any advantage. What seems to happen is that they play a move, then several seconds later remember that they are playing with a clock and hit the clock with their nearest hand.

Joey Stewart >So I pressed the clock with the wrong hand, what are you going to do about it? Nothing! Because nobody knows what you should do.<

Well, I do. If as an arbiter I see this happen, I might or might not, for a first offence, issue a warning. After that there will be a time penalty and eventually that might escalate even to loss of the game. The opponent should have no need to complain. A good arbiter will see the 'incident'. The arbiter stepping in means that the player who transgressed the law should feel no animosity towards his opponent.

It is not uncommon for the player to press the wrong clock. That happens quite frequently in senior chess where the games are rather close together. Where there is an increment, if the arbiter did not see what happened, he must be called in to adjust the clocks. This is especially so, as in the recent European Senior Team, where the push counter was used to add on 30 minutes after 40 pushes. That is often called a move counter incorrectly. No clock provides a tally of the number of moves made.

A player writes his move down before playing it. This is against the Laws. The arbiter sees it. Again it might first be a warning, probably when the player is not on move.

A player makes his move, presses the clock and now offers a draw. It is very likely the arbiter will be unaware of this transgression. If the draw is accepted here is no problem. If refused, the opponent should contact the arbiter, if he is distracted.

A player offers a draw correctly. This offer should be recorded by both players on the scoresheet as (=). No penalty has ever been awarded for failure to do so. But it is part of the history of the game when not immediately accepted. It was a very useful law when I was Chief Arbiter for the Romanian National League. Suddenly two people would be talking and I had no idea what they were saying. I looked at the scoresheets. The fact that there was an offer of a draw was there to be seen. This was probably what they were talking about, one of the people being the captain. Problem solved.

Some players persistently offer draws. The arbiter won't know until told. Again, it helps, if the opponent has recorded the offer and wishes to complain.

I sometimes find it quite disconcerting that a player plays the move and presses the clock with one hand, and records the move with the other. Of course it is allowed in the Laws.

Shaking hands before the game is a custom. It is not in the Laws, but is sometimes a local ordinance. When I first played we did not shake hands before the game. Some people shake hands after the game. I did ask Dr Jana Bellin, Chairman of the FIDE Medical Commission, whether the whole practice should be discontinued in view of transmission of infections. She thought it is unnecessary to consider this.

As often happens, these threads get taken over by people quoting 'rules', and then arbiters step in... Nothing wrong with that, but it is not everything.
I think the original question was about 'acceptable conduct', which I take to mean generally acceptable standards of behaviour. It is easier to give a list of things which are not acceptable, and I could start with talking, eating a full packed lunch at the board, pressing the clock with the wrong hand, adjusting pieces on the opponents move, clearing up sets and boards when there are games still in progress, slouching sideways in the chair (Carlsen), sitting on the back of the chair, 'gloating' by standing over the board, as if to say 'look how good my position is', the list is endless. Many of these might well be covered by technical rules, but a lot of them come under the broad heading of good manners, and different people will have different ideas about what constitutes good manners.