Chris Wardle wrote:
There seems to be growing support in Northumberland to introduce a rule that if your opponent is down to 5 minutes and has stopped recording the moves, you are not obliged to do so either. The voices speaking against this change are mostly just pointing to the FIDE laws.
This is, frankly, a stupid idea. You
want to score your games. The advantages are that you can make claims based upon your scoresheet. If your league has quickplay finishes, you want more moves written down in case of a dispute. Given disputes happen due to a time shortage usually (e.g. Appendix D), then you want as many moves as you can written down! If you have an up to date scoresheet, you can get the Rules Committee (or suitable alternative) to make a decision. Otherwise, the decision will just be to replay the game, because they'd have no evidence at all to go on.
The rules are such that you should always record your games. An allowance is only made if you are short of time, but you can still record if you so desire. How do you define "Once you're opponent stops recording?" When he's down to less than 5 minutes? Your opponent can still carry on recording if he wants to, even until his flag falls.
If Northumbrian players are that aghast at the idea of writing moves on a scoresheet, make your league G/59. That way, they're not obliged to write the moves down at all!
Chris Wardle wrote:Is there a guiding principle that a certain part of the FIDE laws are sacrosanct, and a certain other part open to modification? Presumably, the ECF would not wish to accept games played under a local version of the laws of chess that allowed pawns to move backwards.
Yes, this is pretty much the situation.
Chris Wardle wrote:Is it the responsibility of the local competitions to ensure that their laws do not conflict "too much" with FIDE, or of the local graders, or of the ECF?
Local competitions. The ECF can't be expected spend tens of hours reading the rulebook of every single league in England...
Chris Wardle wrote:Those in favour feel that our rules should take precedence over any other rules including FIDE's, rightly point out several other examples of local rules, and have asked me to approach the ECF for their opinion.
Several other examples might well be vaguely sensible. This isn't.
Chris Wardle wrote:I want to resolve the question of whether games could still be graded if we adopted the rule - thanks for your opinion on that. The rule's actual merit is a secondary concern.
Will it get graded: Probably.
Your priorities are wrong. The actual merit of the rule should be the primary concern; it's that daft, and I can't see a single good reason why you do not need to record your game.