We have noticed at our local monthly scholastic tournaments that those players participating in the lower-rated sections (under 600 and under 1000) rarely keep score. These tournaments are standard-rated (30/5), and I know from the rules that these players are required to keep score, but it’s also challenging and frustrating for young, beginning players as it creates an added distraction. I’m interested in knowing how other tournament directors have handled this situation through their experience.
It’s common practice not to require score keeping for sections with grades K-3.
See 15A1c.
Best,
~Ybriang
Brian Yang
These days they tend to emphasize keyboarding skills over writing motor skills, cursive writing is almost becoming a lost art, and I wonder if kids spend much time learning ANY form of writing, including printing.
Under a previous rulebook a common interpretation was that opting against scorekeeping resulted in a time deduction (5 minutes for G/45). I wanted my 4th grade son to take notation so I told him that he needed to take it until he got down to 20 minutes and then he could stop. That avoided him flagging due to taking notation and still got him used to taking it.
One organizer eliminates the notation requirement for the U600 scholastic section while retaining it for the U1000 scholastic section.
This is an off-hand untested suggestion that you require notation for a player when:
A) both players have more than five minutes
and
B) the player has more than 15 minutes.
Emphasize that failing to take notation means that the fifty-move rule and three-fold repetition will not have the needed evidence for the player to make a claim, and if there is a dispute in a game and no notation then the TD will only be able to make an educated best guess to resolve it.
We simply told our kids it was required before we would take them to a tournament. Then helped them learn it. They were amazingly fast.
It’s also worth noting that the rules on scorekeeping do NOT require it to be perfect. If you have a claim it has to be good enough to support your claim, but players should not obsess about being perfectly accurate.
Very good.
Rob Jones
Kids can learn and do notation. After describing how to do algebraic notation as like playing “Battleship” the kids usually nod and say “Got it” and write their moves down. Even the wee ones do it. The players should practice it, however, before they go to a tournament. Somewhere between 10 to 20 games practice using algebraic notation should work just fine. I have seen kids use both short and long algebraic notation. As a TD, I usually tell them to try the best that they can. It does not have to be perfect, but it helps them and their coach or parents to go over games with them, and is a record of their accomplishment.
Whether it’s a significant distraction depends a lot on whether a player is used to doing it. The place to get used to using a clock and recording your moves while you’re playing is not at a tournament! (Nor is a tournament a good place to get used to the touch-move rule and the rules regarding move completion.)
I’d second the reference to Rule 15A1c. But it is difficult if not impossible for a TD to determine whether a player knows how to keep score. (And, for that matter, it can be difficult for a TD to determine whether some of the other 15A1 conditions apply.) What I’ve done in such cases is to give players who aren’t keeping notation a time penalty. The rationale is that, since players who keep score are getting a time penalty in the form of the time it takes to record their moves, it only makes sense that players who are being excused from keeping score should get a real time penalty to compensate. I’ve also noticed that when I impose a significant time penalty for not keeping score, the number of players who “know how to keep score” suddenly increases.
Be aware that the USCF has a writeup on how to keep notation that anyone can print out:
uschess.org/docs/forms/KeepingScore.pdf
I normally have a stack of these available when I’m running a tournament, and I’ve had at least one boy read this writeup between his 1st and 2nd games and keep notation from his 2nd game on.
Bob
When we had players who hadn’t yet mastered reading and writing, we required them to make a checkmark for every move to help develop the habit.
Not a bad idea. At several major scholastics, I have been called to the table by the players who have two issues they
would like me to resolve: A. Whose move it is, and B. What is the proper square for at least one piece on the board.
As chief td is is not uncommon for players to appeal such rulings, made by my floor and section chiefs.
Rob Jones
Use to offer that option for scholastics. Word got around quickly. Almost everyone took the five minute penalty and stopped keeping score.
I had a similar experience. But when I upped the penalty to 10 minutes for G/30 (=15 minutes for G/45), the number of kids who “knew how to keep score” suddenly increased.
Bob
Another option is once a player gets below 5 minutes they no longer have to keep score - so I have offered players the opportunity to go down from the time control to five minutes - with opponent keeping the regular time control. Suddenly folks seem to learn to keep score.
Our games were G/30. Changed the penalty from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. Largely solved the problem.
My favorite score-keeping story.
K section, SuperNationals I. One girl had the neatest handwritten (printed) scoresheet I have ever seen. Time control was 25/1. Around move 15, running short of time, she switched to drawing a line through each box instead of writing in the move. Clearly, she had been well trained by her (IM) father.
The problem was - it took her LONGER to draw the line than it did for her to write a move. She was very concerned
about perfectly centering the line in the box. She concentrated very hard, and drew each line very precisely. It was almost painful to watch.
She flagged on move 23.
Be very careful about what you teach your younger players to do.
An all too typical story. I know a coach who berates his youngsters who do not have complete readable notation. He does not accept any
excuses, including time pressure. And I have seen students of his run
out of time a move or two from winning, up very significant material.
I did feel for the girl, for I knew her true issue - either I loose on time, or I have coach mad at me. HMM.
Rob Jones
The rulebook states that if a player has less than 5 minutes on the clock they are not required to take notation. I wonder if the girl knew about this rule.
Some people place high value on having a complete scoresheet, even when they are aware of this rule. I am one such person. Call me anal, but it really bothers me to have moves missing from my scoresheet, and this is one of the reasons I don’t play faster time controls anymore. But there are people even more extreme in this respect than I am. I once played two blitz games with a guy who insisted on keeping score for those games. I was able to win one of the two games, even though I’m a terrible blitz player and he was higher-rated than me. Trying to keep score is a rather severe handicap in blitz. 