Writing down your move......with a giant pencil

[Ian Kingston]

They'd be defaulted for not being seated at the board at the start of play.

[David Sedgwick]

As a slight change to the thread from mascots and war paint, do New Zealand play in the Chess Olympiad? If they do, are they allowed to do the Haka before play starts? That could break the tension at the beginning if they were! And in the light of the views expressed in this thread, would the arbiters have the power to stop them should anyone complain?

Yes, New Zealand do play in the Olympiad. No, they don't do the haka.

When I had the honour of being a match arbiter at the 2006 Olympiad in Turin, I was a little nervous at the start. So I asked if in the first round I could be allocated the match between USA v New Zealand, where I felt there were unlikely to be any problems and I knew there wouldn't be any language issues. Arbiting the match did indeed prove to be a fairly straightforward task.

Fortunately no-one in the New Zealand camp had any bright ideas along the lines of your suggestion.

[Scott Freeman]

Ian Kingston wrote:
They'd be defaulted for not being seated at the board at the start of play.

I suppose they could do it at 1-58pm if play was due to start at 2pm, but it might play havoc with any announcements. Am sure the same sort of timings must happen in Rugby Union matches.

[Kevin Thurlow]

You could contact the NZCF and suggest it (but they do take the Haka seriously). Meanwhile, I propose that each match starts with the playing of the national anthems of the competing teams...

[Scott Freeman]

Nice idea Kevin! By the time that all the anthems finish, if anyone wasn't at the board then, they should certainly lose by default!

[Stewart Reuben]

Scott Freeman >I suppose they could do it at 1-58pm if play was due to start at 2pm, but it might play havoc with any announcements.<
It would not play havoc with announcements. They often run on well after the scheduled start of play. The zero default time applies only after the actual start of play. The main reason for poor time-keeping in foreign events is the administrators, not the players.

Stewart Reuben

[Alex Holowczak]

It would not play havoc with announcements. They often run on well after the scheduled start of play. The zero default time applies only after the actual start of play.

Interesting. The Laws of Chess state that default times of any nominal value occur after the scheduled start time, not the actual start time. For example, a 30-minute default time on a 1000 scheduled start means a default is awarded at 1030, whether the round started on time at 1000 or otherwise. Why does this suddenly change for the 0-minute default time?

[Ian Thompson]

The Laws of Chess state that default times of any nominal value occur after the scheduled start time, not the actual start time. For example, a 30-minute default time on a 1000 scheduled start means a default is awarded at 1030, whether the round started on time at 1000 or otherwise. Why does this suddenly change for the 0-minute default time?

I think you are remembering old rules which no longer exist. The rules used to say that a player lost if they arrived more than 1 hour (or some other specified time) after the scheduled start time. They don't any more. They now say a player loses if they arrive 0 minutes (or some other specified time) after the start of the session. I think the meaning of "scheduled start time" is clear, and is as you say. The meaning of "start of the session" is less clear. Stewart's explanation is one reasonable interpretation, but not without its drawbacks. A player could be seated at the board at the scheduled start time and then leave the board before the game has actually started. If he came back after it had actually started he would have lost, which is hardly fair when its the organisers who failed to start the game on time.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The meaning of "start of the session" is less clear. Stewart's explanation is one reasonable interpretation, but not without its drawbacks. A player could be seated at the board at the scheduled start time and then leave the board before the game has actually started. If he came back after it had actually started he would have lost, which is hardly fair when its the organisers who failed to start the game on time.

Hence "arrive at" and not "be seated at" in the most recent rules. This specifically means that you provided you have been at your board before the default time, you're not going to be defaulted, even if you aren't there at the default time.

[Ian Thompson]

The meaning of "start of the session" is less clear. Stewart's explanation is one reasonable interpretation, but not without its drawbacks. A player could be seated at the board at the scheduled start time and then leave the board before the game has actually started. If he came back after it had actually started he would have lost, which is hardly fair when its the organisers who failed to start the game on time.

Hence "arrive at" and not "be seated at" in the most recent rules. This specifically means that you provided you have been at your board before the default time, you're not going to be defaulted, even if you aren't there at the default time.

The term "arrives at the chessboard" has been in the rules since 2001 at the latest, so that's not new. I don't think the rules have ever referred to being seated, but some arbiters have interpreted the current rules to mean that - see http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 24&p=24861

[Alex Holowczak]

The meaning of "start of the session" is less clear. Stewart's explanation is one reasonable interpretation, but not without its drawbacks. A player could be seated at the board at the scheduled start time and then leave the board before the game has actually started. If he came back after it had actually started he would have lost, which is hardly fair when its the organisers who failed to start the game on time.

Can "Start of the session" be interpreted as the "scheduled start time"? I.e. the session starts when the entry form said it was supposed to?

I know that if my opponent is not present at the board at the scheduled start time, and the arbiter is having a bit of a ramble about whatever he chooses to ramble about, I just start the clock. If questioned, I say that the scheduled start time has passed.

[Ljubica Lazarevic]

I look forward to seeing many of you at Worcester tomorrow. I can be easily identified as the opponent writing down my move......with a giant pencil!

[Ian Thompson]

The meaning of "start of the session" is less clear. Stewart's explanation is one reasonable interpretation, but not without its drawbacks. A player could be seated at the board at the scheduled start time and then leave the board before the game has actually started. If he came back after it had actually started he would have lost, which is hardly fair when its the organisers who failed to start the game on time.

Can "Start of the session" be interpreted as the "scheduled start time"? I.e. the session starts when the entry form said it was supposed to?

That's another reasonable interpretation, but what would you do with Rule 12 requirements if the session is deemed to have started, but the game hasn't actually started? That could be problematic if, for example, a mobile phone rang in this period - loss or not? Is a player allowed to seek advice from others in this period or not?

I know that if my opponent is not present at the board at the scheduled start time, and the arbiter is having a bit of a ramble about whatever he chooses to ramble about, I just start the clock. If questioned, I say that the scheduled start time has passed.

Would you do that if your opponent was present? I hope not, because your opponent may be disturbed by the arbiter's announcements, in which case you shouldn't do it when he's not present.

[Alexander Hardwick]

I know that if my opponent is not present at the board at the scheduled start time, and the arbiter is having a bit of a ramble about whatever he chooses to ramble about, I just start the clock. If questioned, I say that the scheduled start time has passed.

Would you do that if your opponent was present? I hope not, because your opponent may be disturbed by the arbiter's announcements, in which case you shouldn't do it when he's not present.

My obliging opponents usually let me fill in all the little adminy boxes on my scoresheet (e.g. date, name of tournament, name of opponent, grades) without starting the clocks. For politeness' sake, I say to them "you can start the clock if you want" before starting. Usually they don't. I recognise that Mr Holowczak may not be so obliging...

I look forward to seeing many of you at Worcester tomorrow. I can be easily identified as the opponent writing down my move......with a giant pencil!

Hey, that was my idea! I'll be at Ealing Rapidplay though. Where do people buy these giant pencils anyway?!

[Carol Williams]

I saw today in my local fancy dress shop a dalmation suit complete with bone, can I wear this when playing in a tournament or is this not considered approriate dress