Advice During a Game

[Simon Spivack]

There have been a number of guides over the years. They have all said essentially the same thing, as given by me. Furnishing the match score is, for most players, the same as indicating whether to accept or decline a draw offer.

From my reading of the first paragraph, you could have gone over to your player and advised him to take the draw.

No.

... the statement "The captain shall abstain from any intervention during play" then might be seen to prohibit this.

Yes, normally the captain should wait for his player to ask. The rule could have been better written. In general, unless derogations have been specifically drafted, captains have little power. Nonetheless, they are expected to display common sense, should someone be taken ill, a fire alarm go off, or whatever, then they should step in.

In a knockout competition last year I experienced a similar situation. I was captain and we needed a draw from the last game to go through. My player had been losing but had pulled the position back in mutual time trouble so that it was now unclear. Nonetheless, my player was still worse off for time with both players down to seconds, but his opponent offered him a draw. My instant reaction was to tell him, without being asked, to accept this, which he did and we went through. Although no-one voiced any objection, I found myself wondering whether what I had done was correct or not. After reading this section of the Laws I am still none the wiser. What do others think?

You shouldn't beat yourself up over this. Nothing should have been said, however, in the heat of the moment all sorts of things can happen. Fortunately no dispute resulted, it was a venial sin.

[Eoin Devane]

Rule A : The match captain may advise his player.
Rule B : The match captain may not interfere during play.

Conclusion : The scenario that satisfies both these rules is where a player interrupts his play in order to seek counsel from his match captain.

I have seen such an approach in a recent dispute where a player(s) interprets something that is allowed to mean that other rules can be disregarded.

But in reply to Eoins point, I think given that it's normal etiquette for a player to seek the captains advice, I think they should just change the rules to allow a captain to assume he has been consulted if he overhears a draw offer.

That would indeed be a logical conclusion. However, I would suggest that another logical conclusion that could be drawn is that the fact that it specifically states that the captain "may say to a player, “offer a draw, “accept the draw, or “resign the game" seems to override the second rule. Indeed, I find it hard to think of a situation in which a player would ask his captain's advice and be given the advice "resign the game".

No rule system should be based on intuition and experience, as this does, to some extent, bias it against new-comers to the game, whom we all want to encourage. I would agree that this rule (along with several others) ought to be clarified.

Alas, my whole situation would never have arisen had I not managed to miss a mate in two in my own game!

[Ben Purton]

Basically back in the day Captains in some ECC's and Olympiad's could actually accept draws if offered I believe? I remember it was being changed at the ECC when I went. It was rare to happen.

[Alex Holowczak]

We got around the issue of knowing the match score my putting the scores on a computer connected to an overhead projector in the classroom. Then, as the home team, we sat facing the screen, meaning we knew the score. Our opposition always had to turn around, which was made unnecessarily difficult by the way we arranged the surrounding chairs and tables. We made full use of home advantage.

I once told a player he only needed a draw to win a tournament for us. I was outraged when he declined a draw offer a few moves later. Turned out, we actually needed a win to win the tournament, and he duly won. Sometimes the players know the score better than the captains anyway.

[Tim Spanton]

Re telling players about the rules:
I presume no one is suggesting a captain should be allowed to go up to a player and point out that, say, queenside castling is still allowed when the b8 square is under attack, or that bishops can move backwards as well as forwards?
Not quite the same, I realise, but a hint is a hint.

On a related point, I remember playing in a National Club Open match which had got down to one board to finish. The other team needed a draw to go through. In an unclear position (our player was behind on material but had an attack) their player offered a draw. Our player had just checked the match score and knew he had to win to avoid us being kncoked out. After some thought, he accepted the draw offer.
I later asked the captain what that was all about and the captain said it was perfectly understandable as our player might well have lost rating points if he'd carried on.
I was flabbergasted but no one else seemed to find the situation at all strange. I never played for that team again (but then I'd been drafted in at the last minute anyway on bottom board so maybe I wouldn't have been wanted).

[Simon Spivack]

One weakness with the current FIDE formulation is the circumstance when a captain is markedly stronger than either of the two principals.

Some time ago Joe Koba captained a match in which there was a game between Archil Ebralidze and Ignatius Loyola. Eschewing casuistry and bearing his advanced years lightly, Ignatius made a straightforward proposal of a truce to Archil, an offer that was passed onto Joe. Of course Joe's own constitution fought against discrimination, one would expect no less from someone considered by many of his contemporaries to be a beloved teacher and the supreme genius; there could have been no hint of racism or dehumanisation when he uttered the immortal words "Take it Archil!" For Joe's realism enabled him to see that normal play over the board would not have been salubrious. Better that the rules should have allowed Joe to only say: We're two-one down." As it was, he effectively analysed the game on behalf of his player. How many divisions did poor Ignatius have battling on his side?