Player A has only a King. During Player A’s turn, while Player A’s clock was running and before Player executed a move, Player B moved one of his own pieces. Player A pointed out the action immediately, claimed it was illegal, and claimed a win/draw due to illegal move.
What is the ruling? Is this an illegal move? If so, does Player A get the full point, or is he restricted to a half point because he cannot checkmate Player B?
If it is not an illegal move, what action should be taken? Should Player A have one minute added to his clock and the game resume?
It is an illegal move, and the game is declared drawn. See USCF Blitz Chess rules 7c (defines mating material) and 7d (defines what the penalty is for an illegal move).
You can’t move twice in a row under any circumstances - the second move is illegal. I would treat it as a deliberate illegal move. (I don’t have my rule book. The deliberate illegal move rule is somewhere in Rule 11, I believe.)
I tend to be wary of questions like this, because the wording may have been carefully crafted to conveniently omit part of the story, in order to elicit the answer desired by the person asking the question.
OK, so player A had not yet executed a move. But had he begun a move? For example, had he determined a move?
If A had played a move, and then taken his hand off the piece, and then B played his move without waiting for A to press the clock, then it would be ridiculously harsh, IMHO, to rule that B made an illegal move by not waiting for A to press the clock.
Questions like these make me realize that the rules of chess, especially blitz chess, still need some work.
I did not gather from the players whether Player A had determined his move. This was not a situation, as often happens in the opening, where Player A picked up his piece and set it down and his hand was on it’s way to the clock when Player B moved prematurely. As I understood it, it was not concurrent movement.
Well, of course if player B, right in the middle of player A’s turn and without anything else happening, played a second move, then I agree with Boyd Reed’s response.
How do you get players to stop double tapping touch sensors while the other player is pressing his side at the same time? Some players are so fast at doing this that they can prevent their own time from running while making your side of the clock always seem to be on. This seems to be an even bigger problem when there is a d0 delay setting.
IMHO, this reading would allow any player to simply make a second move on someone else’s time, even in serious time pressure, without penalty. This seems contrary to the intent of the illegal move rules and penalties.
If this happens in an event I run, I’m going to treat it as an illegal move. If I am overturned on appeal, so be it.
Personally I think I’d consider it a violation of the 20G rule on annoying behavior and use blitz rule 18 to add a minute to the other player’s clock (a pretty good case can be made for it being unsportsmanlike and thus more deserving of a two minute penalty).
Since an illegal move isn’t completed until the clock is hit, I don’t see it as being an illegal move (I know of one case in a regular game where a player made a move, forgot to hit his clock, his opponent sat for 15 minutes or so, the first player noticed that his clock was running and made another move with the opponent calling an illegal move - and because the player STILL hadn’t hit his clock it wasn’t an illegal move and he simply took back his second move with no penalty other than having had his clock run for more than 15 minutes).
That additional minute (or two) means that they aren’t making a second move without penalty.
That doesn’t match blitz rules 14 and 15.
14.)
A player who has played an illegal move must retract it and make a legal move with the piece touched prior to pressing the clock. If no legal move exists with that piece then he may make any legal move. Illegal moves unnoticed by both players cannot be corrected afterwards. An illegal move is completed when the player presses the clock, whereupon the opponent may claim a win.
15.)
A legal move is completed when the hand leaves the piece.