Non-Sudden Death Time-Flag situation

Running Chess Tournaments
1

The Participants:
Player A - White, Class C player
Player B - Black, Class D player, 70+ year old Russian whose English is very poor and often requires a translator.
Me - Senior Level TD, Expert, but not directing in this event, so observer only

Event: Weekly club tournament, 1 round per week
Time Control: 40/75, SD 30

Situation: King and pawn endgame, Black has a winning but very complicated position (he should be able to queen first, then white queens, then he can force a queen swap, then win what’s left over). I observe Black lose on time, apparently on the 39th move if scoresheet and clock were correct (never verified). TD is not immediately present, but perhaps within earshot. The clock beeps for about 15(!) seconds and flashes, then Black makes his 39th move. White ponders the position for about 3 minutes and says the flag fell. Black makes an unintelligible reply. White repeats substantially what he said before, and something like “I won, but we can play on”. Black makes an unintelligible reply/grunt. White makes his 40th move, Black makes his 40th move, still recording the game. All he records are checkmarks only - as he has done since move one. Both players press clocks during this time. Black’s side is frozen, but White’s side ticks down (no danger of flagging though). After white’s 41st move, I summon the TD, telling him what I’ve seen. I tell him he has to make a decision here, either to clearly forfeit black, or to set the clock (still blinking) for the second time control since the players are still making moves. At some point white has written 1-0 on his scoresheet and stopped recording, Black is still making checkmarks. The TD asks the players what has happened. White claims that he has won, Black seems confused/alarmed and makes sounds that do not sound like assent. The TD says Black has lost on time, do you agree, and we eventually get meaning home and get some form of denial (never acceptance). At this point I tell White (maybe I should have not butted in, though I was senior in rank) that since he has played on, and Black has never fully agreed that it was a forfeit, the game has to continue. I told him he had to have stopped the clock, made the formal presentation to the TD, and assure himself that a time forfeit did take place. As just one potentially problematic aspect, 40 moves was never officially verified. Though I didn’t have my rulebook on me at the time, rule 13C5 seems to substantially corroborate my point: “If the opponent does not accept the claim, the claimant must present the claim to the director.” I can not honestly state that Black ever definitely accepted the claim, and my opinion is that he probably did not. Without wanting to risk character assassination, Black seems half-out of it, if you know what I mean. Anyways, the TD agreed with me beforehand out in the hallway, and he made them play on. White eventually lost the game in the sudden-death time control. Verbal protests were made, but no formal appeal, that I could tell. We have recorded this as a win for Black. White seemed ok with the result in the end, rationalizing that his play was so sloppy that he deserved to lose. Did we do the right thing!? If we did the wrong thing, is it too late to fix it?

2

I think you were wise to fetch the TD.

I think you were un-wise to contribute to the discussion with (and in front of) the players.

If I were the TD and arrived at the board when both players agreed (or I could verify) that 40 moves had already been made, I would have reset the clock for the 2nd time control and had them play on.

It was White’s place to make the claim. He made a horrible mistake by saying “I won, but we can play on”. If he wanted to do that, he should first get Black’s signature on the scoresheet (and, he should probably continue to keep score on a DIFFERENT scoresheet).

But, at this level, many players simply don’t care about any of this. It would have been interesting to try to clean up later (if you had not fetched the TD and the argument started only when they posted the result).

Here’s my favorite version of this problem:

National Elementary, K-3 section. Boy is about to roll Girl off the board with 2 rooks (many other pieces, but this is essentially a “rook roll” forced mate). I’m watching because this is the last game in the section - I’m about 15 feet away.
Boy makes one move - check - forcing the Girl’s K to the 3rd rank. Girl moves. Boy makes another check - forcing the Girl’s K to the 2nd rank. As Girl moves, I start strolling towards the table to take the result. Boy says “I offer a draw” (?!)

Girl says no (??!!).

Boy shrugs, and proceeds with the mate.

I take the result with my usual routine: “John played Mary, correct? Mary, who won the game?” Mary says “I won the first game, and John won the second” (???). I ask “why didn’t you call a TD when you finished the first game?”
John says: “Oh - we did, but he said we made an illegal move and made us start over”.

Me, marking up the result slip: “John wins. Sign here. Goodbye!”

3

If it was not obvious to the black player that a claim had been made, there would be no reason for him to believe the game had been concluded. The tournament area is not the place for analysis or to play ‘see what happens’.

Players need to understand that if they are making a claim it needs to be clear to their opponent that they are doing so. If, as in this case, there is a language barrier it may also be wise to make it obvious to a TD as well.

Having them continue playing seems to be the best decision in this case.

4

Isn’t there some kind of nonverbal convention that could be used, akin to a handshake draw offer or tipping the king to resign? Even something as crude and basic as pointing at the face of the clock with the fallen flag and staring your opponent meaningfully in the eye ought to be sufficient. Even in the presence of a language barrier, the rules and conventions of tournament play are surely well enough understood that no player could fail to take such a hint.

5

The problem here is that the instigator in this action was claiming a WIN. There is no universally accepted convention for “I claim a win on time”.

Other than…packing up, walking to the results sheet and marking up the win.

or…marking the win on your scoresheet and pushing it across the table for your opponent to sign.

Playing on is the universally accepted signal for “the game is still in progress”.

6

Two points to clarify/obfuscate things:

  1. The site is a conference room in a mall business office. There is no skittles room and this is a small room that probably could not hold more than 10 games if it wanted. People have been known to do silent skittles in the room after the game. The only alternative is the hallway floor (which I myself have used a lot) but I don’t recall seeing others do this besides my games, certainly not the 70-year-old Russian.

  2. The Russian man was seemingly oblivious to his clock beeping relatively loudly for 15 seconds or so (possibly half-a-minute) while everyone else was just staring at them. For better or for worse it stopped beeping once he made a move and pressed his clock. He was obviously unaware of “conventions” as anjiaoshi describes it.

7

I have a question here. (I’m a club TD, that will be applying for my Local certification later this week having just completed a club level tournament that should give me the required credits, but that might be another point.)

But here are my questions:

  1. Rule 16E indicates that “Only players may call flag” So when you called the TD and pointed out the time issue was it really the TDs place to review the game or should he have waited until one of the players called time? Or, did you call him over because someone was basically analyzing a game after it was complete? I know that in my club we (I) recently evoked a club rule that if anyone does post game review in the playing room that I quickly kick them out of the playing room. A rule I actually leveraged two weeks ago.

My basic question, is how should the TD handle this when someone else approaches them?

  1. I don’t think the notation is that important in this question because of rule 15B. “If either player has less than five minutes remaining in a non-sudden death time control, both players are excused from the obligations to keep score.” and it continues to state that “Doing so, however, makes it impossible to claim … a win on time forfeit”. So, here, if they agreed that they reached move 40, that the next time control needs to be used and that each player must try to re-create accurate score sheets, (also asking Black to replace those check marks with moves.)

  2. I would then deal with any complaints with White by calling rule 15H. Reporting of results. “When a game is completed, the results must be immediately reported…” White did not report the results at the end of the game so I would have to assume that the game wasn’t over.

Am I way off on this?

Thanks,
~charlie

8

The TD had to step in to set the clock for the 2nd time control since neither player had fixed the blinking clock and there is a limit to how long we can stay in the room. This is a rare reason for a TD to step in and common sense dictates that it is absolutely legitimate. If there was a win by forfeit, then he is not interrupting a game in progress to ask what is going on. Skittles in the tournament room here is allowed to some extent if silent since there is no alternative place. On months when I direct the event, if they talk after a warning, I take their kings until they’re ready to leave.

PBlack has either explicitly or tacitly exempted from scorekeeping by the club officers. He’s over 70 and doesn’t speak English. I doubt you’d get very far with that. White, did not quit keeping score. He had what appeared to be a valid scoresheet, so here, your point is moot; if he had made an official claim, it likely would have been upheld.

You can try to use that rule, I suppose, as a vehicle to to get across your point. But then, what if another player chats with his opponent for five minutes in the hallway after a draw, points out how the opponent should have played on for a win, and then the opponent sees a result not posted, and remembers your recent ruling that everything has to be reported immediately - how would you answer that consistently? I would never invoke this rule unless a player left the building and there wasn’t a clear agreed upon resullt.

9

Being over 70 might excuse him from scorekeeping, if he has Parkinson’s or arthritis or it’s difficult to write for whatever reason. I don’t see what being Russian has to do with it; algebraic notation can be recorded in Russian.

10

How about explaining the rule to him? It’s hard enough, seemingly, to tell him his pairing.

I really don’t know. I’m not a club officer, and don’t know if they have an understanding with him or not on this issue.

11

I would thank the player, possibly remind them that they have no standing, and then go observe for myself. It may be a bit easier psychologically for a player to call a TD when there is one standing right there.

Alex Relyea