I attend tournaments and keep seeing the same player hiding his score sheet on his lap sometimes under the table during games. On his opponents turn he is feverishly writing down moves in the scoresheet on both sides, not just one but many, I say this is blatant note taking and analysis. I have never been paired against this person but knew someone who was and watched this happen for the first time several years ago. As of the last tournament I went to, I looked across the hall and sure enough they were doing it again. The funny thing is no one has ever said anything about it. If I ever play this person I will object to the TD and ask for scoresheets to be collected after the game in the interim when I see someone like this cheating at a tournament what do I do. Keep quiet since they are not my opponent, tip off the TD to a possible cheater and appear to be a rat not to be trusted by other players, could I write anonymous note to TD when it is going on in a game? Any suggestions?
More than likely the TD isn’t aware of what’s going on. I would let the TD know about it ASAP. There are some things that aren’t that big of a deal, this isn’t one of them.
I wouldn’t consider it being a rat, if I saw someone doing this during a game, I’d be more than happy to let the TD know.
To me, this is pretty severe.
What constitutes note taking. Many write their move down, look again at the board and then either move or discover another move and the process continues. Is one move not used note taking? In casual conversation over the topic I have heard this described as notetaking. I personally think it is not.
I agree that the original post is note-taking.
It is note-taking if it is excessive. If someone complains that his opponent is note-taking, I give a warning to the opponent if they have more than 4 moves crossed out, because it could be considered note-taking if you have a habit of writing down a move and then thinking about it for a while, crossing it out if you find something better.
FIDE is, by the way, more strict with this. FIDE arbiters expect you to write down your move only after you have moved, to prevent the note-taking aspect of writing it down first. 
There’s controversy about this, and even some NTDs post in their tournaments that you have to write down your move after making it (the HB Global Challenge tournament had this rule on the website).
This is covered under 20C, Use of notes prohibited. “The use of notes made during the game as an aid to memory is forbidden, aside from the actual recording of the moves, draw offers and clock times, and the header information normally found on a scoresheet. This is a much less serious offense than 20B (Use of recorded matter); a warning or minor time penalty is common, with more severe punishment it the offense is repeated.”
The question of whether writing one’s move down before making it (and perhaps scratching it out and writing another) really comes down to one of intent. Is the player really doing this as “an aid to memory”? I would probably invoke 20C only if the player wrote down more than his next move.
To go by the letter of the law exactly (though some discretion is advised) you can only write down the moves, so you technically you aren’t supposed to write the move til its been made (FIDE right for once? (: )
That is not explicitly stated in the USCF rule, and I suspect the omission was intentional. In my opinion, intervening in something as trivial as this would fall under 21K2, Beware abuse of power. (“Tournament directors should realize that the powers given to them under these rules should be used sparingly, to restore equity or to penalize a serious infraction so as to discourage its recurrence. No one’s interests are served by what appears to be the arbitrary or high-handed exercise of authority.”)
I was thinking if you take “recording of the moves” literally, you can’t record a move until it has been made. I know there is no one who is gonna punish someone for writing the move first, but if you take it literal that is what you have.
It’s possible to construe the rule that way, and that seems to be the reasoning behind the current wording of the FIDE rules. (It used to say “the layer on the move has the choice” of whether to record the move before or after playing it.) The point to consider, however, is whether a player doing this is somehow getting an unfair advantage. (Writing down the move so he won’t forget what he was going to play?) Since the player is not, in general, gaining any advantage, enforcing a minor legalistic point like this is (in my opinion) a bad idea.
I agree. On a side note. I went to FIDE’s website to try and get a copy of their Handbook and I could find the download but anyway to buy a physical copy? I am wanting to try and figure out how to get the FA and IA as I work up to NTD over the next several years.
You were all very helpful thank you. To let you know this is not just one move this person writes down. Then decides or not decides on it erases it then puts down another move and makes it. I have witnessed from my seat and while pretending to look at other games him writing down multiple moves and erasing over and over again. in columns and on sides of scoresheet. It would seem to me that scoresheets should be collected all the time and briefly perused when handed over to TD to discourage this.
If you have to play this person, than you can object.
Number of members do use other types of notes on the scoresheet other than the moves. The most common, the player will write down the time on the clock. Like 10. Bc3 82:14, the 82:14, will be the time on the clock after the move. It is a note, would find it strange for anyone to object to this type of note.
Notes to study the moves of the position, than I do see a problem. It will have to be up to you to make the objection call, if you have to play this person. True, one type of note on a scoresheet, is still a note. Thinking of the idea of a note on a scoresheet, would have to say the best I can give you for the first time – a warning to the other player. This could be the reason why nobody has objected.
During the next tournament, after the game, ask the director to check the returned scoresheets. The scoresheet should have a copy of the notes. Study the scoresheet, see if you find any red flags. Point it out to the director, if the director finds a problem, the director can keep an eye on the player.
Since I am a practitioner of “Write move then make move”, I think that the USCF rules specifically allow this in direct contradiction to the FIDE rules.
“15A. Manner of keeping score. […] The player may first make the move, and then write it on the scoresheet, or vice versa.”
But perhaps you are arguing some other nuance that this rule doesn’t address such as if the player writes it, should he be bound to make that move? Sometimes, in the midst of my analysis, one candidate move emerges as the leader and I write it down with strong intention to play it, but my anti-blunder thinking procedure eventually causes me to scratch it out and choose a different move.
Write the move first, than make the move. Make the move first, than write the move. There should not be a problem with both. The players I find that keep the best scoresheets, write the moves first than make the move.
If you write the move down after the move, you can forget to write the move down. If you make your move, than your opponent made a fast move. Your thoughts will be on the position of the board, not the scoresheet. It could be a few moves, before finding the error of half a move on the scoresheet.
Would find a player that writes the move first on the scoresheet, than makes the move: would be more ideal for the director to check the scoresheets after the event. If the player makes a move on the scoresheet, than study the position, than makes a different move – it could be a note.
The simple notes made on the scoresheet, notes of time left on the clock, notes of the next move. Are going past the reason of notes in the first place. Directors have a hard time to prove someone is helping some other player. If a player does get help, if the help was of a note. The director can prove the note, some times cannot prove who helped the person with the note.
The notes to self are different than notes from others. The notes that can be on a scoresheet, would have to be very limited. As there are not that much free space on the scoresheet in the first place. The notes done on the scoresheet are not done to cheat. The notes done away from the board, on some other paper, are done to cheat.
Sure, someone can makes notes at the board, the type of notes to cheat in the game. That would be as blind stupid, as to mug a cop in central park.
In the first place, what I meant was that, since the USCF rule does not explicitly address this question, it is a matter for TD discretion, under the “equity and unfair advantage” standard.
In the second place, that’s not what the FIDE rule currently says. The version in the FIDE Hankbook now reads:
The wording of this rule has changed repeatedly over the years. and these attempts at over-specificity have only resulted in confusion. The USCF rules are wisely silent on the point.
Most tournament rule changes are in response to some actual or perceived unfair situation.
I wonder why FIDE changed the rule having to do with not writing moves down before making them?
Squeaky Wheel doctrine – whoever complains last gets a rule change.
It probably happened something like this:
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If you write down a move and then immediately make that move on the board, are you making use of notes? Probably not.
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If you write down a move, then look at the board for a long time, then eventually play that move, are you making use of notes? Well, maybe not.
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If you write down a move, then look at the board for a while, then scratch it off and write down a different move, are you making use of notes? I think most people would say yes.
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If you write down a move, then look at the board for a while, then play a different move without scratching off the first one, are you making use of notes? Now it’s really starting to get tricky.
I suspect these sorts of “where do you draw the line” situations, together with the tendency of a few players to push the envelope and get away with whatever they could, probably prompted the change.
Another alternative (not an appetizing one) might have been to require that, once a player writes a move, he must play that move. Sort of a ghost-magic version of touch-move. I doubt whether FIDE (or anybody else) would ever want to deal with THAT one.
Maybe the FIDE rule is a good one, or maybe it’s not. Either way, that’s how things like this often come into being.
Bill Smythe
Bill Smythe:
If we do look at your question on 3 and 4, would it be fair to say everyone that plays chess for a number of years has done what you have pointed out? Do know players that mark down their moves first than make their moves. Do know players that make their move first, than mark down their moves. There are a number of players that will do both.
20C. Use of notes prohibited. The use of notes made during the game as an aid to memory is forbidden, aside from the actual recording of the moves, …
The recording of the moves are on the scoresheet. If the recording of the moves, are in error than the true move … can we say it was a note? If my knight was on b1, and I put down on the scoresheet Nd2 only to move to Nc3. Is that a note or an error on my part?
Can we not say everyone has or will break this rule 20C … yes … if you want to make the most minor human errors a crime. Even if a player that makes a claim of rule 20C … the most common punishment is a warning or worse a minor time penalty. Since everyone has broken this rule, the best anyone should get is a warning.
[1]
I forget where, but I read in some kind of rule source that it is explicitly legal to write down the time with each move.
[2]
In general I get the feeling the USCF and/or FIDE rules place too much burden on the Arbiter or TD. Rules like requiring the TD to know whether to grant a declared draw over the objections of one of the players (“It is a theoretical draw”, “No it is not”, “Yes it is”). And all the clock rule details.
That is why I wince when reading suggestions like “Note taking is legal, unless it is ‘excessive’.” Either it is legal or it is not. If you erase your planned move, then it was not your move it was a note.
But it is cool for the TD to ignore the infraction unless the opponent complains.