English Chess Forum

Only a minor inaccuracy I've spotted in the website.

FIDE wrote:Article 9: The drawn game
9.1
a. A player wishing to offer a draw shall do so after having made a move on the chessboard and before stopping his clock and starting the opponent`s clock. An offer at any other time during play is still valid, but Article 12.6 must be considered. No conditions can be attached to the offer. In both cases the offer cannot be withdrawn and remains valid until the opponent accepts it, rejects it orally, rejects it by touching a piece with the intention of moving or capturing it, or the game is concluded in some other way.

ECF wrote:Article 9: The drawn game
9.1
a. A player wishing to offer a draw shall do so after having made a move on the chessboard and before stopping his clock and starting the opponent`s clock. An offer at any other time during play is still valid, but Article 12.5 must be considered. No conditions can be attached to the offer. In both cases the offer cannot be withdrawn and remains valid until the opponent accepts it, rejects it orally, rejects it by touching a piece with the intention of moving or capturing it, or the game is concluded in some other way.

The difference is that the FIDE rule points to Article 12.6 and the ECF rule points to Article 12.5

I'm not a geek (honest ) I was just comparing national vs international to see if there were any differences i needed to know about regarding a dispute in my league. This I think is a typo.

It must be a typo as there are no ECF laws of chess - only FIDE.

That said, the new ECF are not adverse to making things up as they go along, so who knows?!

You're not wrong Sean. I can't understand how the FIDE rules that are on the ECF website can be wrong. A simple copy and paste would suffice??....

Martin Regan wrote:As per usual the urge to knock the ECF gets in the way of clear thinking.

Actually its your constant attempts to defend the indefensible that gets in the way. A mistake was made. Its no big deal. Somebody pointed it out - again, no big deal. Any sensible person would hold there hands up, say sorry, fix the typo and move on.

Instead, you try to blame everyone else, including FIDE, for the problem. If you actually played chess, you might understand why some people get frustrated with the bureaucrats.

Martin Regan wrote: The time, for example, I have spent in correspondance with you

Well, if you're going to go around under the cover of being a limited company and thereaten to sue officers and indivdual players because our association is not what did you expect us to do? Lie down and take it? We have a little more about us than that. Oh, and we still manage to play a few games of chess as well!

Martin Regan wrote: The ECF defend the indefensible? Your having a laugh

If only

Returning to the original purpose of this thread, I noted in Guert Gjissen's last column on Chess Cafe, that even FIDE's own website is not consistent. Therefore it seems a bit harsh to criticise the ECF for a problem that is caused by FIDE.

http://www.chesscafe.com/geurt/geurt.htm

What actually happened is that the FIDE site became corrupted. There were several errors and the word and pdf forms were not consistent. After this was pointed out to me from Australia, eventually the FIDE Laws were returned to what took effect 1 July 2005. It has been 12.6, not 12.5 since 2005. Unfortunately the ECF corrected that without noticing there were several much more serious errors.
Except in emergencies, the FIDE Laws are only altered once every four years. There will be extensive discussions in Dresden in 2008, to take effect 1 July 2009. British arbiters and players have had an enormous impact for the past 50 years.

How the FIDE site got corrupted I don't know. Whoever did it had some understanding of chess and a moderate grasp of the English language. Some of the rubbish that appeared was in the draft for consideration in Majorca in 2004.
Stewart Reuben

Unlike some people who post to this site, i subsribe to the view that, given the choice bedtween cock-up and conspiracy it is nearly always the former.

This one has resurrected itself again. The ECF has conflicting versions of the 2005 rules on the new Website. http://www.englishchess.org.uk/fideandecu - select - FIDE Laws of Chess.

The HTML and worddoc section 9.1(a) refer to section 12.5 and 12.6 respectively. Ok - we only need to wait 3 weeks for the new rules to apply and for this to go away.

Dear E Michael White,
Well spotted. The price of correct rules is eternal vigilance.
Stewart Reuben