Saturday, January 03, 2009

New Laws of Chess

I've got NSWCA boss Bill Gletsos to thank for this. A number of days ago he posted a quick summary of the new laws of chess that are set to take effect as from 1 July. You can see all of them here. A downloadable draft document of the Laws in their entirety is available courtesy of the KNSB.

Now Mr Gletsos is right - the proposed new article, 6.7, what I call the "turn up on time rule", is the most controversial. And that's mainly because it's simply the most ridiculous. Like I said before, it has none whatsoever to do with chess! There are far too many situations that could arise that causes a player to be delayed. He might have a toilet emergency, for instance, as happened in Dresden; or have a little accident on the road; or be hassled by some overly officious club receptionist who just needs to see every damn ID card that proves you are who you say you are!

Still, at least as far as Article 6.7 is concerned there are 2 options under consideration. Lets hope option 1 is successful. Most sane tournament organisers, I think, will not be so harsh.

3 comments:

Ted Teodoro said...

Article 13.7 is good-intentioned but hard to apply. I've never like my opponent's friends looking our game over, especially over my shoulder. I can sense their eye contact and head movements which my opponent is somehow reciprocating. Worse, my opponent goes to the bathroom and his friend follows him for a chat on supposedly a non-game related matter. This usually happens in big tournaments and not in club tournaments. For me, just disallow any viewing of an ongoing game. Attend to your own game and leave the hall when your game is done. Leave other people's games alone.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. I'm currently participating in the National Championships and I have to reach the tournament hall by 7pm on every working day. I even had a nightmare just the night before (no joke) that I was late for 10mins for my next round!

Regards,
Wei Ming

Anonymous said...

What about if you were playing any other sport?

Is any sportman allowed to reach late for a competition? Soccer, Tennis, Golf, ...

If your schedule doesn't allow you to join an event, don't join.

Specially if you are talking about a National Championship, supposed to be a serious event!