Mobile phones and late arrivals

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Why not play internationally rated chess on the internet? FIDE have allowed just one experiment on this, the South African Open where three players competed from Australia. Of course there are problems, particularly about cheating. There should be a trusted arbiter at each place where play takes place. I first proposed this initiative to Jan in 1993. We haven't made much progress!

The US Chess League (http://www.uschessleague.com/) has done this successfully for several years. Technically, its possible. It would be interesting to know what the players think of this form of chess. I've only ever played one match by telephone. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I imagine this would be similar - the absence of an opponent sitting in front of you makes a difference. I'd try it once via the internet to find out though. I just suspect I wouldn't want to do it more than once.

If it were done on DGT boards either end I don't see how it would be much different to playing vs. say the Braille team?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Is it correct that, if you have won your game, shaken hands, all the formalities and a little later your mobile goes off and you are still in the playing area, you lose the game?!

No. Once your game is over, it is over, and you are now a spectator.

[Roger de Coverly]

Is it correct that, if you have won your game, shaken hands, all the formalities and a little later your mobile goes off and you are still in the playing area, you lose the game?!

I would have said not, since you become a spectator when your game has finished. Some events, notably Olympiads when short of space, will remove players whose games have finished.

[Alan Walton]

Here is a link regarding the Short incident

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/nigel ... obile-0-1/

[IM Jack Rudd]

Erm, mate tells me Nigel Short lost like this in 2008? Now looking for it on Net.

If you're referring to his game against Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant in the EU Championship, then his phone went off while his game was still in progress.

[Roger de Coverly]

Erm, mate tells me Nigel Short lost like this in 2008? Now looking for it on Net.

Liverpool EU Championship comes to mind against Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant.

What happened there was that Nigel switched off his phone at the start of the round, but it came back to life with a low battery alarm. The game was in progress at the time.

Like computers, modern phones seem to have a standby mode so finding the actual off switch can be difficult. Some resort to removing the battery . Phones which insist on playing a tune when you switch them on or off are a hazard as well.

[John Upham]

I noticed this video footage of the reaction of chess players to a mobile phone incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-SvdkxN52Y

Anyone know which club this occurred at?