Good point - I hadn’t thought of that.
The rule ought to be that, if a player causes a piece off the board to touch a square on the board, the player must promote to that piece on that square if legal (even if the player has not yet released the piece).
Bill Smythe
I agree with that. This is close to the FIDE rule which is that the selection of the promotion piece is “finalized” when the player touches the promotion square with an off-board piece. In the FIDE Laws of Chess, this rule is grouped with other touch-move-related rules.
However, the FIDE rule is still somewhat unclear as to the situation if the player has not touched a pawn that is promotable on that square first. With your version, Bill, it is a touch-move situation if a player touches a piece on the board (his own or an opponent’s), OR, if he touches a square with an off-board piece, and that square is a possible promotion square on the move.
Your rule is an improvement on both the FIDE rule and the USCF rule, Bill. But if the USCF adopted it, it would be compatible with the FIDE rule, rather than being a conflict, as with the current situation. So this is a good idea from a lot of perspectives.
Yes. I don’t think it should make any difference whether the player has touched a pawn or not. If he brings an off-board queen into contact with a square on the eighth, he should be obliged to promote there (if legal), either way.
Bill Smythe
Here is my proposed ADM again, this time with a rationale. If I submit the ADM I’ll include the rationale as part of it.
In Rule 9D, after “If the player has released the pawn on the last rank, the move is not yet determined, but the player no longer has the right to play the pawn to another square.” add:
If the pawn is still on the board when the player’s hand has released the new piece on the promotion square, the move has not yet been determined but the player cannot promote to a different piece or on a different square.
RATIONALE: This is a corollary to the proposed change to Rule 8F6 which says that players do not have to physically move the pawn to the last rank when promoting it. The amended rule says that if the pawn is still on the board when the new piece is released on the promotion square the move is not yet determined. This could be significant if more than one pawn could promote on the promotion square or if the promotion move would result in checkmate or stalemate and the player’s flag was about to fall. Also, the player is not allowed to promote to a different piece or on a different square once the new piece has been released on the promotion square. Without this rule change it could be argued that the player could change his or her mind since the move had not yet been determined.
Rather than submitting this as a separate ADM, I will most likely submit this as part of my ADM to amend rule 8F6 to say that the player is not required to physically move the pawn to the last rank when promoting a pawn.