Knocking Pieces Over in Time Trouble

[Ian Thompson]

How many arbiters would intervene and make this, obviously correct, decision when pieces are knocked over and the clock stopped without resetting them? From my observations of this happening, I suspect very few.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Yes - he's right.

I recall (maybe a Philips and Drew event many years ago?) Korchnoi knocking a piece over in time-trouble as he hit the clock. He immediately restarted his clock, said something (maybe "sorry" in Russian!), and then replaced the piece and hit the clock again. I was impressed.

[Joey Stewart]

Sounds totally deserved in that instance, too much internet chess has dulled people's dexterity in moving the pieces over the board.
It also feels like since increments were forced into every event there is a school of thought developing that no one should ever be allowed to lose on time anymore.

[Reg Clucas]

A related case is when a piece ends up on an unintended square during time trouble. In a rapidplay, my opponent captured one of my pieces, but in his haste to press the clock dropped the piece back on the same square. But he carried on to press the clock anyway, so I was left with my clock running and with a bishop of each colour standing on c6! I claimed an illegal move under 3.10.2 - "A move is illegal when it fails to meet the relevant requirements of Articles 3.1 – 3.9" (in this case 3.1.1). Was I right?

It was academic anyway, because when the arbiter arrived my opponent barefacedly denied what had happened, so the arbiter was unable to take action. Despite this I still won, and rarely have I felt such satisfaction at winning a game.

[Paul McKeown]

But he carried on to press the clock anyway, so I was left with my clock running and with a bishop of each colour standing on c6!

Two pieces cannot occupy the same square. Therefore, yes, illegal move, in my view.

(I originally wrote that in standard chess, pieces are fermions, not bosons! However that analogy doesn't really work, as I assume that colour would be part of the state of a chess piece, as would the type of the piece, so it would only prevent two pieces of the same type and colour from occupying the same square.)