English Chess Forum

A Spanish tournament has this in their rules (in their translation to English):

"PONTEVEDRA RULE: out of respect for the audience and the persons who sponsoring the tournament, players who were taking up the first ten tables, they must play at least 20 moves and their games could not finish in less an hour."

I'm sure the spectators will be delighted to see two players sitting at the board not moving for an hour, or, more likely, to be watching two empty chairs until the players briefly return to sign the scoresheets.

I am surprised that a tournament that doesn't apply consistent rules across all boards is actually eligible for ratings, norms etc.

Richard Bates wrote:I am surprised that a tournament that doesn't apply consistent rules across all boards is actually eligible for ratings, norms etc.

Games are rated individually, so no problem. As to norms, that is worthy of discussion.

To my mind there are only two options.

-Insist that all draw offers are made through the arbiter, or
-Permit any and all draws.

Doing anything in between these two options leads to all kinds of theatrics that benefit nobody, least of all the spectators, who were presumably not after a masterclass in how to vacuum off all the pieces in an Exchange Slav or execute the Nf3-g5-f3, Re8-f8-e8 repetition of the Ruy Lopez. Obviously, in the absence of meaningful rules stopping it, two reasonably experienced players who want to draw will unfailingly produce that result, however many moves or minutes you tell them to do it in, and that's even assuming you can rule out repetitions. As such, I agree that the charades caused by this rule in particular will be more laughable than any that have gone before...

Minor caveats to the above.

For the first option to be meaningful the arbiter, who should be a player of reasonable strength, should have the right to declare that a draw has not been fought at all and demand a replay.

For the second option to not cause the game to be brought into disrepute, the 10-move stalemate and reconstructions of Hamppe-Meitner, Vienna 1872, should, inter alia, be banned.

There is absolutely only one rule worth considering. I speak as someone who has organised a few major international events, with an eye on their impact for sponsors.

Rule: let every game procedure without artificial intervention. Have no 'draw rules' - Sofia or otherwise. And definitely, no Arbiters sticking their nose in.

Principle: trust the players. It's their livelihood at stake. If they want to kill off sponsored events with dull or short draws, that's their problem. I don't think they're that stupid

On this at least, I agree with David. Down with pointless gimmicks!

Ian Thompson wrote:"PONTEVEDRA RULE: out of respect for the audience and the persons who sponsoring the tournament, players who were taking up the first ten tables, they must play at least 20 moves and their games could not finish in less an hour."

I look forward to seeing what happens when a player on those boards is checkmated by move 19.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: I look forward to seeing what happens when a player on those boards is checkmated by move 19.

Or for that matter if they miss something serious in the opening.

I've had this game twice.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. dxc5 e6 6. c3 Bxc5 7. Qa4+

It's the colours reversed version of why the Cambridge Springs can or perhaps did work surprisingly well in school's chess.

I've also had a quick win in the Caro-Kann:

1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Qf3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.d4 e6 6.Nh3 c5 7.Ng5 1-0

IM Jack Rudd wrote:I've also had a quick win in the Caro-Kann:

Everyone else on record of reaching that position has spotted the problem and played .. a6, .. h6 or .. Be7.

Chernev's old book was "Logical Chess, Move by Move". It could equally have been "Tactical Chess, Move by Move".

A method of studying openings, possibly superficial but safe, is to study the miniatures and how to avoid them.