I play CCA events in Chicago when I can, so was a little surprised to see the below rulings (assuming they are accurate, two sides to every story). Full link to the reddit post is below.
Specifically, #6 for the mandatory handwashing after every snack ruling, this seems like an incredible penalty. This is at least a two-minute loss walking to the restroom, washing hands, and heading back to the board every time a snack is consumed.
Besides asking for an onsite appeal, what other options does the player have? Can I ask for half round bye? I assume if I refuse to play the round the TD can kick me out of the tournament?
If this fish jerky came out during play, would a guardian or spectator be allowed to appeal to the TD? What about a non-guardian spectator?
Thanks.
My opponent’s family (two adults, one teenager) approached me and rudelydemanded that “you cannot eat your salmon jerky because we are vegetarian”.
I told them to leave me alone and get a TD if they have any issue.
The father went to talk to a TD.
The TD came over and told me he was told “my opponent is allergic to fish”. Note how this is a different excuse from “because we are vegetarian”. I told the TD this is different from what they told me, and asked them to show me medical proof.
They were not able to show any medical proof.
The TD told me to only eat it outside of the playing hall, and wash hands before coming back. I agreed.
The father of my opponent went to talk to the TD again.
The TD came back and told me “I am not allowed to put my sealed bag of salmon on my table because of my opponent’s family’s religion.” Note this is a brand new excuse from the first two.
I told the TD they cannot force their religion on me and appealed his ruling.
The floor TD came and told me I cannot put it on my table because “food is not allowed on chess table” while most players do have some food on their table.
I eventually played with protest and beat my opponent.
I think this is a prefect example of why organizers should have general rules prohibiting food and beverages in the tournament hall (besides water and anything required to accommodate medical conditions). That is how I have always done it when organizing chess tournaments.
It appears to have been selectively enforced by the TD due to the religious beliefs of the parent/guardian. While that is a gross violation and hope USCF censors the TD for that ruling, i’d like to focus on item #6.
What recourse does the player have for enforced handwashing (estimated ~2 minute penalty per snack) for food consumed outside of the playing area? Can I ask for more time added to my clock?
I am a pretty new TD, so I don’t have a lot of experience. However, I don’t recall any rule that allows the TD to enforce hand washing.
For example, I hope everyone washes their hands after using the bathroom, but as a TD I can’t enforce it. Likewise, unless you are leaving a residue on the pieces/board/playing area, I don’t see how the TD can mandate hand washing.
Now, if you were eating a sloppy joe, and some got on the board/pieces/play area of the table, I could see the opponent complaining and a TD making you clean up your act.
My tournaments are very small, around 15 people. We only have one room, so there is no playing hall and food area, and at the last event, I brought snacks and soda for the group. Though, it was blitz, which kind of has its own “fun” element to it. So it was not unusual for a snack at the table.
But if the rule is no snacks at the table, they should be enforcing it universally, but that is just my thoughts.
Eating at the table is rude. Eating something that may be greasy or smelly is more rude. I wouldn’t want someone with greasy hands touching the pieces on my nice wooden set, and if the sets were provided by the tournament I’d feel sorry for the players assigned to that board in the next round.
There is no eating at the table here as the TD decided to selectively enforce it for one board due to a parent/guardian complaint that the minor was a vegetarian.
The question is whether the TD can arbitrarily enforce handwashing that will lead to a disadvantage (loss of time) for one player.
While the other rulings of the TD were either wrong or selectively enforced in my uneducated opinion, this one in particular puts one player at a competitive disadvantage due to not being a vegetarian.
Depending on how you interpret the one player’s side of the story, it sounds like there was eating at the table initially. As noted earlier, it would be interesting to hear the other side(s) of the story.
My wife has a garlic allergy, although it is not a life-threatening one, but if you ask her to prove it, I’m not sure how she’d do that. Garlic is not one of the 9 recognized food allergies, though allergies to garlic and other alliums have been documented and there are lots of anecdotal reports. When we went to DisneyWorld a few years ago, we contacted the Disney folks ahead of time and they assured us that all the restaurants on the property could accommodate her, and they did so very well. It isn’t clear how many people have this allergy (her father had it as well), probably because it is not well-recognized by the medical profession. I’ve spoken to numerous chefs over the years, every one of them had experienced previous reports of a garlic allergy.
I went through allergy testing many years ago, I don’t know what foods they can test for these days, as of a few years ago, my wife’s GP was not aware of a test for garlic allergy.
We know several people with allergies to olives or olive oil, another allergy that isn’t among the 9 required by food labeling: milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame.
Tournament directors selectively enforce all the time.
I would venture that most of the time a director won’t enforce touch move unless an opponent makes a claim, for instance. Same with an opponent not recording moves.
It is uninteresting to me whether it was selective. More interesting is whether it was motivated by something inappropriate or merely a standard case of settling a dispute at a board.
I worked for a company that did all kinds of diagnostic tests, including allergy testing. They can test for just about anything. But there are allergies and then there are allergies. My daughter ends up with severe problems if there are peanuts around at all. There is a reason why airlines no longer server them. I’d have no issues with a TD telling me to wash my hands if he saw me eating peanuts in the hallway. mfschulte has it right - discerning if the motivation was inappropriate or not is the key.
Yeah, I know of local schools that have banned PB&J sandwiches, even in lunch boxes, because of students with peanut allergies. (In at least one case it was a voluntary ban enacted by the student council.)
Hearing from other involved parties might be illuminating. As the saying goes, in every dispute there are at least 3 sides: Your side, my side and the truth.
In this example, the reasoning went from initial flip flop between allergy/vegetarian to finally religious reasons.
Only valid accommodation here is for medical/safety reason and it should not ideally disadvantage the other player. My normal snacks for 4+ hour games contain peanuts. No issue with swapping it for something else. If no other snack is available and handwashing is required, there needs to be some clock compensation.
I would have expected better from such a large tournament, but rounds do need to start on time.
These are long games (40/80, SD/30, d30 or G90 +30s). Snack eating definitely spikes during the final round and especially on Sunday with smaller break between 1st and final rounds. Definitely helps to maintain concentration.
Having selective enforcement in a section with large prizes definitely isn’t cool.
Hope the TD’s side is better than what was reported. I’ve seen supposedly experienced TDs in the FIDE rated amateur teams say they could do nothing due to a team member’s opponent taking notes during the game…
Eating at the table is indeed rude. I once sat next to a NM who ate a pasta dinner at the board in the last round. But drinking any nonalcoholic beverage can be done without disturbing the opponent. (It’s common to see coffee, tea, and juices being consumed at FIDE events.) I think unscrewing a thermos or popping a can when one is on move is not going to disturb one’s opponent.
And eating appropriate light snacks to manage blood sugar is perfectly fine IMO in the tournament hall. Stand in a corner near the waste basket and chew quietly. Salmon jerky, nuts, chocolate, and Karpovian yogurt all fall into that category if the portions are small enough that they can be consumed standing up. Unwrapping the food is the act most likely to disturb the opponent.
Chess is a game between two players. What standing do relatives have? Why is TD responding to relatives’ complaints?