PLAYING CONDITIONS - NOT THE WORSE? SURELY?

[David Gilbert]

Q1. When is the use of mobile phones in a playing area perfectly legal?

Q2 When might you hear (quite loud) public comments like “What’s a matter with ‘em – can’t they talk – bunch of weirdos”?

Q3 How might your game be influenced by Mars being somewhere in the vicinity of Jupiter – or something like that?

A. At the Exmouth Arms when the upstairs room has been doubled-booked and a county match which has to be switched to the bar area, where some of the locals have been drinking since before mid-day, and a group of astrologists are holding a public meeting!

Well done to everyone who played and mastered the conditions. The publician did switch-off the jukebox and the telly, so it could have been worse! I think one chess-player defected to the astrology group during the afternoon and secretly most of us probably agreed with the "weirdos" remark!

[Brendan O'Gorman]

This Middlesex v Kent u-160 match was my first county game in several years. What a shock! However, once I'd agreed to play rather than accept the walkover offered, I was surprised by how little bothered I was by conditions that under different circumstances would have left be seething. It looks as though I was able to tolerate the background noise because I'd been told to expect it and had nonetheless gone ahead and played. There was no one to blame, the hubbub wasn't going to stop, so I just got on with my game.

Perhaps there's a clue here as to how one should react to background noise during a chess game? Try to see it as normal. Above all, don't get distracted by wondering when it will cease or whether someone should be stepping in to stop it. Easier said than done?

[Peter Constantinou]

I once played chess in a church. This in itself is not particularly remarkable or distracting, but the African style wedding taking place in the adjacent hall added a rather flamboyant and, above all, rythmic ambiance to the afternoon. Thankfully, I had a relatively simple position to play with smooth development and no weaknesses (white in an exchange slav with black's bishop on c8 I believe), while my adversary had to find difficult moves to diffuse the pressure while the drums banged on. I don't know whether I would have won that game without the tactical advantage of love.

Why do we assume that chess has to be played in a religious silence anyway? I suppose the argument that noises are distracting to intense concentration is the obvious and strong point to make, but whimsical notions of musically themed tournaments might not be completely distasteful to all players.

[Joey Stewart]

Well it is often the case that you can have a song playing in your head during a game - covered mainly in another topic.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I find that it is not general noise levels that matter, but the timing of the noise and how distracting it is. A general hubbub of low level background noise is not too bad, ans you can get used to that. Complete silence interrupted by either unexpected loud noises (e.g. the ringing of a mobile phone, someone dropping something on the floor, someone banging a door, someone shouting aloud), or a steady single noise (e.g. dripping water, someone tapping their foot, or even the ticking of a chess clock), can do far more to break one's concentration.

[Jon Mahony]

At the recent York congress we had a bloke walk into the tournament hall on the Saturday afternoon round and shout “Happy New Year!!!” at the top of his voice, 2 or 3 times. I was easily winning my game so found it quite amusing, but it did annoy a fair few people.

At first I thought he was just taking the mickey, but I went outside for a smoke 10 minutes later and found him sat on the floor outside, laughing hysterically into a Tesco carrier bag, so obviously a loony

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

him sat on the floor outside, laughing hysterically into a Tesco carrier bag, so obviously a loony

I think you'll find loonies use lidl carrier bags!

[Richard Thursby]

Did anyone consider contacting York out of hours social services?

[Alan Walton]

Did anyone consider contacting York out of hours social services?

The problem with this is that alot of the chess players will be committed

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Did anyone consider contacting York out of hours social services?

The problem with this is that alot of the chess players will be committed

I think Richard was being serious there. The carrier bag reference sounds like glue sniffing or something (some solvent abuse, anyway). Bit sad, really. The other week, I was accosted in the street by someone who clearly needed help, but was acting aggressively. I felt guilty at not doing anything, but the instinctive reaction is to walk away and not get involved (it was a busy area in Hamersmith, so the police would have been called eventually if needed).

It's not really related, but helping others reminds me of these two BBC articles I read recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12043294
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12122809

[Ian Kingston]

For really poor playing conditions, check out this year's Tata (formerly Corus) tournament at Wijk aan Zee:

[Jon Mahony]

No he wasn’t glue sniffing, I think he just had some sort of learning difficulties - the bag just looked full of shopping.

I did think about informing the staff at the leisure centre reception, where the congress was held, but I saw him getting on a bike and cycling out the gate - for all I knew he could have been a regular round that way and perfectly harmless, so decided against it and went back to my very nice end game

[matt_ward]

If only we got the conditions they get in the top tournaments it would be great wouldn't it! However as we both know this is not possible, most conditions I've experienced in county chess has been perfectly fine however it's league chess which is somewhat distracting I tend to find anyhow.

I think the most inappropriate clubs which play in leagues are ones were they decided to hold it in a bar or pub. Why on earth they do this is beyond my understanding, I appreciate some places are not easy to rent out but for example playing in a bar or pub, a chess league match can only be a recipe for disaster.

Matt.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The great thing about playing in pubs is that it can cost the club relatively low amounts of money; the pub will try to make the money from drink purchases instead. See also the reasoning for holding chess tournaments in hotels.

[LozCooper]

I'd have thought a lot of players who rush from work to a league game would prefer to be able to buy a drink or food than be playing at a venue which offers no refreshments