I played and witnessed a player using a interesting distracting tactic recently. After a few moves in the opening my opponent took the cap off his yellow highlighter (not the one he was writing moves with) and highlighted the last move played by his opponent, my move. On first seeing this and giving him the benefit of the doubt I thought nothing of it it and thought “ok well I know the book line and hes unfamiliar with it”. The next move he did it again. Ok I thought again and yeah I’m fine. A few moves later in the middle game he does it again after a crucial move. Now its annoying.
Thinking back on this, that silly squeaky little yellow marker is very much like them saying “Really, you played that, Hmm?” It caused myself and another opponent of his, in a critical position, to lean forward to see what is he writing or doing with that last move on his scoresheet instead of continuing to focus on analyzing the game.
This tactic along with a curious time delay not set on his clock, wearing a bluetooth during the game, and pointing out to another player, either the clock or the position(I couldnt hear) were new unsportsmanlike tactics which I had never witnessed over the board. Call me Green if you will but I tried to ignore it all but I’m posting in order to find out the most effective way of handling these situations should they occur again and if this highlighter issue has ever come up.
It seems that there is a possibility that your opponent was in some way making notes during the game which is forbidden. If you think he was cheating, report it to the TD. The TD should, at a minimum, inquire of your opponent as to what he was up to.
I never thought he was cheating just thinking over it today and wanted some opinions on the highlighter if it came up again. The other things Ill give the benefit of the doubt to but all those things together seem suspect.
You should have asked him what he was using the highlighter to record, or if you didn’t want to speak to your opponent, you could have requested the TD to determine whether what he was recording was within the rules.
The FIDE Laws of Chess state that the scoresheet may be used only to record “relevant data”, mentioning explicitly “the moves”, “times on the clock”, “draw offers”, and “information related to claims”. Unfortunately, the FIDE rules don’t define what else might be “relevant data”, but I would suppose it includes things like check and checkmate indications, marks indicating positions which have been repeated, and header information like the event, player names, etc.
The USCF rules prohibit note-taking, and Rule 20C states that only moves, times, draw offers, plus standard “header information” can be written on the scoresheet.
The rules also state that while algebraic notation is standard, descriptive and computer notation are permitted. This implies that those three systems are the exclusive list of permitted notation systems under the USCF rules. Another section of the rulebook details these notation systems. None of the three permitted notation systems involves the use of different colors of ink or highlighters. From this it can be argued that if the player was using a highlighter he was using an extension to algebraic to record something beyond what is recorded in algebraic. That is against against the rules on permitted notation, and could rise to the level of “note-taking” – which is definitely prohibited and could expose a player to penalties.
I agree with the previous posters. If it happens again, contact the TD. Most likely the TD would have told him to stop. Highlighting is not part of taking notation.