Chess Etiquette/Behavior gone wrong.

All Things Chess
1

Reading other posts, bad chess behavior seems to be pretty common nowadays.

Post your stories about players with bad chess etiquette or other forms of bad behavior.

Here’s one from me. Rather tame, but still mildly funny.

I’ve had online players get really mad at me since I resigned before they could deliver the kill shot.
I’ve also had players get mad at more for NOT resigning in a position they’re positively sure they’re winning. (Of course that’s can be rather subjective since both our ratings are below 1500.)

2

One of my “favorite”, is when in online game, there is a check mate in one move, and my opponent sits and waits until time on his clock goes down to the last second to deliver this checkmate, waiting for me to resign.

3

Non-USCF-rated high school fixed-board team tournament.
One heavily out-rated player is getting crushed but plays on with a lone king.
The opponent then proceeds to queen every pawn (carefully avoiding stalemates).
The coach of the crushed player comes to me to complain that the opponent is cruelly dragging out the agony and action should be taken against him, preferably forfeiting him for unsportsmanlike conduct.

My response was that his player could end the agony at any time by resigning and if he opted to continue to play then the game would simply continue.
Eventually a mate was delivered that involved all of the pieces on the board.

Both players were on the questionable side of the etiquette line, but the coach’s request was what I felt was the farthest out of order.

4

My experience in over-the-board USCF-rated events is that the overwhelming majority of players conduct themselves correctly. And during play, I’m a high-strung hypersensitive prima donna. :smiley:

I can’t remember the last time someone was obnoxious to me on the Internet Chess Club. I generally play in the 5 0 pool.

5

Another thing to remember is that perception of bad etiquette can vary from person to person.

Also, subconscious (not intentional) actions can sometimes be perceived as deliberate violations of etiquette even though they are not.

I am a person who doesn’t sit still for any long period of time. Ever. My family, friends and co-workers have all gotten used to it, as have the local chess players that see me (it is an asset when being a TD because I naturally keep moving around the tournament room keeping an eye out for anything). One time I was playing Arnold Denker and he calmly asked me about it after the game (I had a cold and would often leave the board and go to an isolated corner of the room to wipe or blow my nose, which he saw, so he figured my constant motion was not an attempt to psych him out). I did tell him that if I was drugged to insensibility then I wouldn’t be constantly in motion, but that would make it difficult for me to function.

6

Player asked me to resign before a game. Took all of his pieces and pawns before checkmating him.

Another guy called me a masochist during the game for dragging out an “obviously lost” position for me. I eventually won.

Some players think and say that the other player is “lucky” every time the other player wins.

Watched a GM throw a Queen across a room when he was losing to another GM.

Have seen numerous players sweep the pieces off the board rather than resign.

People banging pieces on the board.

Refusals to shake hands before the game. A number of GMs in major tournaments and matches have done this leading some players to think it is okay for them to emulate.

Heard one time of a player threatening to beat another player senseless if the latter got a winning position.

You get the picture. Players can be rude, childish, and foolish when they play chess. But it can happen in other games and sports. Trash talking and rude behavior are prevalent even in so-called “gentlemen’s sports” like golf or tennis. In a tennis tournament that I played in, a younger, very good opponent loudly told his girlfriend that our match would not take long and that they would then go to lunch. Three sets and three and a half hours later, the match finished. I am afraid I was a little rude and said, “Enjoy your lunch.” His girlfriend had taken the car and left him at the site. Generally, however, when a player is rude to you, it is best to say nothing. You will get your chance later at the board. As they say, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

7

Nine-and-a-half years ago, I’m playing in a big money tournament. My opponent in round 3 is a young kid (age 11?) who was already rated close to me (1800), and was a member of my local club. After about 20 moves, I was a pawn up with a strong position. Not a won game, but a winning game.

Around move 21, he touches his Knight, but then realizes that to move the knight would be a blunder, and looks up at me and asks, “Do I have to move this piece.”

So I stop the clock and take him into the hallway and say, “You’ve been playing rated chess for over 3 years, so of course you know the rules. If I’d been away from the board when you touched the knight, you’d still have to move it. We play on the honor system. I can get the TD and make the claim, but if you deny it, without any 3rd party witness, he’d have to disallow the claim.”

We went back to the board and he moved another piece. I was so angry, I resigned(in a winning position, remember) on the spot, and said, loudly, “Life is to short to play with cheaters.” He went on to tie for 3rd and win $375. I was so ticked off, I didn’t play tournament chess for 9 years.

8

This is such a thought provoking post. It is unfortunate that the child hadn’t written down his move first. then there would have been solid evidence of his move. Which leads to we are lucky that the powers that be didn’t decide to change touch move to write move. Think about that, what if it was required to write your move down before you made it? And then just like with touch move you were committed to it. That would solve a lot of he touched a piece and didn’t move it.
Might open up a whole other can of something though.

I also wonder why you told the child that without witnesses you had nothing to back up your position. Why even get up and leave the board? Just say yes right away and be done with it.

And then to quit chess because of one 11 year old kid and incident for nine years just seems a little sad.

9

I have no dramatic stories, but…

[1]
Once I had an early endgame position where I could see that I would definitely win the game (my knight was far more powerful than his bishop, and I was one pawn up). I played carefully and won.
But along the way my opponent asked me a couple times to “hurry up”. I guess he could not ascertain that his position was hopeless; or…
…because an ‘a’_ or ‘b’_column pawn would be the queener he maybe thought he could achieve a stalemate.

I remember the game every time someone suggests that a stalemate should be treated as a win.

[2]
One opponent usually placed his piece so that its base was partly outside the bounds of its new square. At first I did a lot of “Adjust”, but eventually I got tired of it. I asked him politely to please place his pieces inside the square, which prompted him to yell so the whole room could hear - “You are bothering me!”.

The arbiter came over, and gently encouraged the player to place his pieces inside the square. His placement behavior improved enough that thereafter I decided not to adjust any more.

[3]
In his Chess Life Q&A column, Larry Evans once wrote - “If it is legal, it is ethical”. That judgment is probably a bit too extreme, but I see his point.

In the last round of a long weekend tournament, as Black I blundered in the early opening and suffered a material loss that I was unlikely to overcome. So I resigned very early in the game, and went home.

Apparently back at the tournament hall there was a small discussion of whether my early resignation was ethical. The argument that it was unethical focused on the fact that my victorious opponent had hoped for a nice long chess game so he could enjoy his sport, and my resignation denied him a longer game.

I do not feel that resigning in the opening phase in an already lost position is unethical behavior or bad behavior.
.

10

One of the upsides (downsides?) of directing higher-end events is that you really get to see some of the underbelly of chess. I have too many stories to relate in one post; people like Tim Just or Bill Goichberg could probably fill up pages of the Forums with similar stories. Harold Stenzel is collecting a number of similar stories from his ~40 years of experience, which he claims will eventually turn into a book. :slight_smile:

Here’s a small sampling of what I’ve encountered as a director/organizer.

  • In 1994, I was at a Metropolitan St. Louis Interscholastic Chess League tournament, serving as an assistant coach with my alma mater. Player A and Player B, both around 1500 strength, were playing in a last-round game. Player B, and his father, were well-known behavior problems in local events. Player B was unhappy with his position, and spit all over the board and pieces - which were the property of Player A. The TD immediately threw Player B out of the tournament. Dad appealed in a most impolite fashion (at least he didn’t spit too). The three-man appeals team - of which I was a member - took about 30 seconds to uphold the TD. The MSLICL followed shortly thereafter with a permanent ban of both father and son.

  • 1994: The first open tournament I organized in the St. Louis area. The Villain (rated ~1600) is playing a German graduate student who’s in the area for school. Very nice guy, rated close to 2000. Anyway, The Villain loses quickly (under 15 moves). The Villain, who used a spiral-bound notebook to keep notation, wrote “F### You” in block letters, with an arrow pointing down to the bottom of the page. He then turned the notebook around and pushed it toward his opponent. The student didn’t tell me about this one until I was handing out prizes after the tournament, but people next to the game confirmed it.

(Later in the same event, The Villain is playing in the last round against an older gentleman, rated ~1200. They were in the early middlegame, when The Villain decides to go into a corner of the playing hall, strip down to cargo shorts, and return to the board to play his game. We approached the opponent, who was one of the nicest people you could ever meet, and begged him to complain. “Oh, no, it’s all right”, he said. But at least there’s something of a happy ending in this case: The Villain ended up losing.)

  • 2004: National Youth Action. A parent physically assaults a TD. Parent (and team supervised/coached by parent) are thrown out of event, parent is arrested, and parent is ultimately tossed from USCF.

  • 2008: National Elementary. Two mothers almost come to blows (literally) during the fifth round of the event. Each accuses the other (and their child) of cheating. As it happens, the two kids are playing each other. The kicker: they each have 0.5/4 going into round 5.

  • 2010: World Open. A player, having had four different TDs rule against him on the same issue, finally decides to spit upon the last TD with whom he speaks. The player is thrown out of the main event, but is allowed to continue playing side events. The player eventually gets a one-year ban from the Ethics Committee.

  • 2013: SuperNationals V. A player in one of the Championship sections withdraws 8 minutes before the scheduled start of the 7th and final round - and about 20 minutes AFTER the pairings for the round have gone up. This player had lost a tough round 6 game, but was still among the section leaders. The player was not sick or otherwise impaired, but just upset after losing. His withdrawal caused the section to be re-paired, which in turn caused the section to start 30 minutes late. (Not only was he on a high board, but his game would have had a major impact on the team standings as well, as his opponent played for the team that was in first place by a half-point going into round 7.)

  • Finally, I have a ton of cheating stories (player assistance, Matulovic-style takebacks, electronic cheating, fabricated scoresheets, attempted intimidation, other intentional rulebreaking, etc.), but probably the saddest two were in the last two years at the PA State Scholastics. Each year, I’ve had one player actually change a posted result from a loss to a win. The cheaters in these cases weren’t really in contention for anything major, but I had to throw them out of the tournament both times.

11

What stories! At least you have NM Juac, who is one of the nicest players, to balance your roster. Why not coauthor “Springer” Chess? I promise I would buy a copy if it wasn’t too expensive. Thanks for sharing!

12

So many stories of badly misbehaving players.

Over these same decades has anyone ever seen bad behavior from a T.D. ? :blush:

My only T.D. story is when I saw a father repeatedly giving move advice to his child, in the hallway. I told the T.D. of my concern, but he just shrugged.

I suppose I have seen a time or two where the T.D. seemed either too tired or lazy to check about a reported minor issue. And sometimes I have felt that the T.D. should have strolled around the boards at least once during the round, for little things like the guy a couple boards away who constantly nervously clicks his pen: I want the T.D. to notice this obvious noise and ask the player to stop clicking.
.

13

Bad behavior by TDs? Heaven forbid! But…

I knew one TD who place a .38 revolver on the table when a player came over to complain.

Same guy had his girlfriend sitting in his lap as he did pairings.

Same guy drove a Lincoln Continental with fur seats. He no longer is a TD. Problems with the IRS and DOJ.

NTDs in a group talking and laughing by games in progress at the 2009 US Open. They shrugged when asked to keep it down.

Senior TD, with only 4 more players in line at registration, closed registration off. He then spent over a half hour to check ratings and do the pairings, and then made a series of announcements. After this he came back over to the registration desk and accepted the entries of the last few entrants which included a master and an IM. He paired the IM and NM, and then paired the two lower rated players. These games had to play with a faster time control. It was a FIDE rated event. During one of the rounds he decided to move a bunch of chairs around, lifting one up and hitting one of the players. Paired every round late.

Two TDs disappeared with a bottle of scotch after pairing a round. They failed to appear to pair the evening round. The next morning, they arrived hung over and did pairings as if nothing had happened.

One TD makes a big deal about telling players to turn their cell phones off and threatens penalties. His own phone goes off frequently in the playing area; he holds loud conversations with the person on the line.

In one tournament, instead of going with the computer pairings the TD hand paired the last round so that the out of town players would play each other while the home players would play each other, guaranteeing that at least some of the hometown players would win a prize.

A TD in West Virginia absconded with the prize fund of a tournament of a two day tournament. He did not show up on Sunday morning and disappeared. Rumor is that he moved to another state and may still be a TD.

A TD had his own special pairing “rules,” which include pairing together enemies, friends, close relatives, people who came in the same car from a distance away, little kids, seniors.

Scholastic TD adjudicates games in his tournaments. Complaints that “his” students get favorable rulings when he judges games.

TD shows up a half hour after registration ends and as a result posts late pairings. No explanation. Every subsequent round is paired late, even when there is plenty of time to do and post pairings.

Yes, there are many more stories about TD actions and inaction. Some TDs have built up enough history that players learn not to go to their events.

14

I knew of a TD that had a whip at one of his tournaments. Maybe it was to get the players to the board quicker :slight_smile:

Worse player incident I know of was a player who asked his opponent if he would like to resign. The player in question claims he first asked his opponent quietly the question (which is still bad behavior and bad taste), then asked the question out loud. Naturally all the players in the tournament room turned and looked daggers at the player asking such a question. Even though the player was up a couple of minor pieces with no queens on the board, and was about to queen a pawn, it still was bad behavior. a player has the right to play a game out to checkmate.

Larry S. Cohen

15

Strangely enough, nowadays I don’t personally see much bad behavior by TDs.

Back before I became a TD (back in the '80s) there was a TD/organizer who had a single section tournament with open and class prizes and a half-price entry fee for masters. A 2198 entered and the TD decided that his rating was too high to make him eligible for the expert prize, but was still two points too low to get the half-price entry fee, with the result that he had to pay twice as much as the people he’d be competing against for prizes.

There was one time an organizer wanted to eliminate all of the games of a player whose lack of a USCF membership was overlooked during the event. When the rules were explained that organizer opted to go with a tournament membership to cover it, so no bad behavior actually happened.

16

I do have a bad TD story. I was playing in a tournament where I was fortunate in drawing my first round game as black. Second round I was paired again with black against an IM rated player. There were at least 2 other players with my exact rating who had 1/2 point byes in the first round. Naturally I went to complain to the TD about the pairing. I was told “these are my pairings” [i.e. his system of pairing], and as he was also the organizer of the event I went and played my game. I played and lost horribly, so the pairings ay not have mattered. On the other hand this is not really appropriate behavior for a TD. I mean I wasn’t even given the usual excuse that it was computer pairings [probably because a computer would never make such pairings]. However, there is a happy ending as I ended with 3 points out of 6 tying for a prize.

Larry S. Cohen

17

This story would have been even worse if somehow you managed to get the black pieces for the third time in a row and saw that the TD was snickering wickedly about it.

18

Back in the good old days of Maryland chess, I was watching an intense time scramble where neither player was looking at the clock. Another spectator was so excited when one of the flags fell that he exclaimed, “His flag’s down!” The player who’s flag fell called the spectator a son of a female dog and rushed for him. Ok, so far this is normal behavior. After the situation was diffused without bodily harm and the spectator apologized. The NTD who was running this tournament and did nothing to diffuse the situation (including ejecting the spectator) intoned smugly and gloatingly, “There’s no apology for a lost game.” Luckily, the event continued without further incident.

19

When I hear stories such as this Mr. Cohen, my first thought is how
much of the complete story are we getting?? Sometimes my answer
has been- “give me a moment, please”, or “let me check”, or in extreme circumstances, “I will look into this, but could I get you to
go ahead as paired??” Extreme is massive computer glitches to wade
through, and those who run enough events knows that on rare occasions strange things happen, other more demanding issues, ie
a furious parent/player who is causing for whatever reason a major
uproar, etc. It is important to note that these answers are not evasive, just that sometimes when one is a sole TD that they must
multitask, and it is impossible for each issue, while important in
themselves, to have first priority. Like say in a three or more section,
100+ player event.

Rob Jones

20

I’ve heard lots of stories alleging poor TD behavior. I’d like to think I haven’t personally exhibited it. :laughing:

(Actually, I know I have occasionally been short with players. That may happen at larger events, and the people fall into one of two categories: people who come to me with belligerent attitudes, or people who ask the same questions repeatedly.)

The following are stories where I witnessed what I would call inappropriate behavior first-hand, or was given first-hand recollection.

I was told of a TD in Northern Illinois who, back in the days of pairing cards, was having trouble making a legal set of pairings. Several times, he’d pair the round, only to have a pair of opponents inform him that they’d previously played. Finally, in exasperation, the TD just told everyone to move one chair to the left.

In 1992, I did once arrive at a tournament where I was supposed to be on staff, about 2 hours before the start of the first round. The site was locked up, and no one was around. Players started arriving about 30 minutes after I did…but still no one there to open the site. The organizer (who was also the chief TD) finally arrived 5 minutes after the scheduled first round start time. Why was he late? He had to make bail.

Anyone who was in the St. Louis area in the late 1980s or early 1990s can attest to the numerous examples of poor behavior on the part of two influential warring NTDs, which unfortunately extended to the organizers and directors who aligned with each. Thankfully, this was pre-social media.

About 10 years ago, I was hired as the pairing chief for a scholastic tournament. When I went to make the last round pairings, the organizer - whose son was playing in the section I was about to pair - decided he would make the last-round pairings himself. I subsequently refused to sign for or be listed on the rating report. A year or so after this, that same organizer/TD was assigned to work with me in a national tournament. I ended up doing almost all the work in my section - because he spent his time watching his son’s games.

In 1990, I was at a tournament where I watched a TD do prize calculations. This TD simply decided that he didn’t need to pay a particular class prize, because the winner of the prize was the only player in the class, and the TD did not like that player. So, the TD simply combined classes where he wouldn’t have to pay the winner. This combination was not in any pre-announcement, nor was it so much as brought up during the event.

About four years ago, I watched a TD adjudicate a scholastic game with K+B+N vs. K as a draw. The players had just gotten to that material balance. The inferior side was a student of the TD (who is certainly a sufficiently strong player that he realizes the ending is a win, though the superior side may well have been unable to win it within 50 moves).

I was traveling on business back in 2006, and was asked to help with making pairings for a one-day tournament I had planned to enter. Apparently, the only certified TD in the area had enjoyed a significant number of nightcaps, and showed up for the event displaying visual and olfactory artifacts of same.

At a side event for the London Chess Classic in 2012, I saw an arbiter threaten to throw a player out of the concurrent FIDE Open, simply for talking too loudly in the playing hall. The subsequent disturbance, naturally, was much louder than the player’s initial talking. Further examination revealed that this arbiter and player had a long and contentious history. Even so, however, I did privately tell the arbiter that I wasn’t sure FLC 13.4 covered him if this was the player’s only offense in this particular event.

During last year’s Bunratty Chess Festival, while walking through the site, I bore witness to a cheating complaint in one of the lower sections. The arbiter who handled it, unfortunately, did not keep control of the situation, and a rather ugly three-way shouting match developed. I eventually stepped in to suggest that the discussion be adjourned to the hallway. (I wasn’t working as an arbiter, but the arbiters knew who I was, thanks to my friendship with the chief arbiter.)