Am I violating 20c. Use of Notes prohibited.

[wbport]

@relyea

I’ve had two non-obvious 3-fold claims in the past year, involving four titled players. Having move numbers written on the scoresheet wouldn’t have helped me one bit.

The numbers (not move numbers) meant the 1st time the position occured, the 2nd time, and (after I play …) the 3rd time; like after White’s 44th, 46th, and 52nd move. Of the pieces that were moving, I would underline the last time time each piece moved to set up the position.

[relyea]

@wbport

@relyea

I’ve had two non-obvious 3-fold claims in the past year, involving four titled players. Having move numbers written on the scoresheet wouldn’t have helped me one bit.

The numbers (not move numbers) meant the 1st time the position occured, the 2nd time, and (after I play …) the 3rd time; like after White’s 44th, 46th, and 52nd move. Of the pieces that were moving, I would underline the last time time each piece moved to set up the position.

I’ve found it easier to convince both myself and the opponent by playing over the whole game. YMMV.

Alex Relyea

[Mulfish]

It seems to me that if it is an aid to the player in determining whether he could claim a draw, it is an aid to memory and violates the rule. I think that was Mr. Magar’s point.

[GeneM]

.
End-of-move clock times can be written on the score sheet.
Draw offers should be written on the score sheet, even though the USCF unwisely does not at least advise and request that draw offers be notated.

Dots, rectangles, exclamation points, greaterThan signs, and other characters beyond those of the notated move and clock times and draw offers, are forbidden by the rules, and rightly so.

To me the only interesting question in this three page thread - Is it legal to encode extra information by left vs right justification when writing the notation for completed moves?

Here the practical aspect seem to take precedence, and suggests that justification modulation to be allowed.
Detecting such encodings, and enforcing prohibitions against them, both seem impractical. Luckily such encodings seem to have no potential for non-trivial benefits that would help you win the current game (absent a clandestine friend who is assisting with cheating).

If an expert illusionist can show otherwise, further discussion could be warranted.
But for now, justify your notation as you see fit, even if you and I should meet across Caissa’s realm. If you can somehow wrest a morsel of benefit from your notation justifications, more power to you. I’m not worried

[William_H_Stokes]

@kbachler

@wzim

@eastside

…I suppose I am not understanding why this is still a question…but the answer, just as it was the last time this was discussed, is “no”. (Even if you happen to write the clock times down as some sort of reminder, the answer is still “no” since clock times are expressly permitted to be noted.)

I think it is the process itself, regardless of how it is done. Writing down the time etc every time your opponent has made your predicted move, right justify, or even spreading your score out a bit e 4 vs e4. Are you creating notation on your score sheet that violates the spirit of the rule? Even though this secret notation is a side effect of making one think before moving? I grant it is a crutch, but no worse than writing one’s move down and reevaluating before moving.

Suppose one “pretends” to write down their move before making it, pretends to cover it up, reviews the board and then makes the move and writes it down - but no graphite ever leaves the pencil to paper, nor any ink from pen to paper. Is this allowed, or not?

In my humble opinion this would fall under annoying and distracting the opponent.

[William_H_Stokes]

@wzim

@brennanprice

@eastside

Writing things that are expressly permitted by the rules…is not against the rules.

Mr. Reed could have legitimately dropped the mic and exited stage left at this point. Spot on.

Writing things that are expressly permitted by the rules…is not against the rules. isn’t my issue. It is the creation of hidden information written using those above methods. Let’s take it one step farther and forget the prediction before moving etc, what if the code is for illustrating main line and variations played? Right justify indicates an exit from the variation. Left justification indicates a winning line, etc. Here is a clear cut case of helping to analyze while you are playing the game, yet one has only used expressly permitted writing. How can that not be wrong?

High powered people have commented on your question by pointing out the material aspects of it. Your question seems to address “spiritual” concerns. Spirituality is a private experience and is pretty much unique to each individual. Only you can determine the morality of your choices subjectively. The standardized rules are the way they are to circumvent “capricious” behavior and provide a uniform experience for tournament participants. If you think that you are in spiritual violation, apply correction to yourself.