I was in a game recently that ended in a draw. I was down a pawn and trying for the draw, either by perpetual check or repetition. It was a complicated position and I put a mark on my score sheet to indicate where the same position had occurred previously. I did this two or three times, and then it occurred to me that this might be violating the prohibition on note taking. So I stopped making the marks, and a few moves later the game ended in a draw.
“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.”
Whatever “notes” are added to the scoresheet are for the TD’s benefit: the position first occured here, it repeated here, and it will happen again after I play this move. A mark or underline on the moves which show how the involved pieces reached their final position before the rep might also be helpful for the TD. If a player can be penalized for checking his scoresheet just to see if a 3 rep is possible in a bad position, something is wrong here.
Writing clock times on the scoresheet is explicitly permitted by 20C. You would like to argue that, because the player had guilty intent, he is nevertheless guilty of a rules violation, even though no one knows about it (or can, even in principle)? How many angels can dance on your keyboard?
The rules explicitly state that writing the move times down is allowed. It says nothing regarding what the player should use the written times for. Therefore only writing the time on certain moves, creating a special significance of its own, is permitted and legal.
The rules never say that the time written down should be used for any specific purpose.
Of course now Sloan will probably need to come up with a rule clarifying the intent of writing the time down, saying that any other intent is forbidden and the player will need to document his/her intent on their every action during the game including things like scratching one’s nose, going to the bathroom, and so forth and so on.
It seems clear to me, from the rule quoted above, that what I did was against the rules. I’ll remember that for the future. In my defense, it was an easy mistake to make, since I often put tick marks on documents I’m reviewing.
Regarding Ken Sloan’s comment, he is certainly correct that the player in hypothetical case described would know he is breaking the rules. Of course, in the absence of mind reading devices there may not be any way to detect such a case.
But I wasn’t looking for new and clever ways to skirt the rules, I was just curious what the rule was.
The act of putting a mark next to repeated moves is so close to the act of recording a draw offer, that only the most paranoid opponent would object, and only the most paranoid TD would sustain such an objection.
This is interesting. I hadn’t realized that marks like this on the score sheet were against the rules. I’ve actually gotten in the habit of putting asterisks next to critical moves that I want to review after the game. The funny part is that I got the idea from watching an IM do the same thing at a tournament once. At least I wasn’t using my asterisks to help myself in the game at all, so I really wasn’t cheating, even though I was technically breaking the rules.
While it might be time consuming for the TD, and any noting on the score sheet to help the TD might be misconstrued, I would suggest pens with different ink colors. This could help you and the TD, and your opponent, and would not be obvious note taking, or putting a time on the score sheet when the position occurred again might also work.
In our small club, we basically played the same 4 or 5 guys’ times hundreds of times each month, and over the years we knew each other’s games inside and out. Since many of our tournaments in the area around for two hundred miles were the same 30 to 40 guys’, all of us also knew each other very well.
One of my friends would shake his head or put “?!”, “?”, or “??” on his sheet during the game. For many years this went on, and eventually started playing weird openings with my friends just so I could be fresh in the tournament, and played the “Grob” or something obscure from the “MCO”.
This all came to a head when one tournament we played into something I was extremely prepared for, and my friend trotted out his usual reply, at which time I promptly put “?!”, which startled him. A few moves later I put a single “!”, then I anticipated his move, and when he made it I put “??”, made my move and “!!”, and he sat looking perplexed, and after a few minutes resigned. At the time, I really did not study the rule book, and neither did most of the other players, or we could have saved ourselves a lot of anxiety.
Wasn’t the intent of this rule to keep people from doing analysis (i.e., planning forward) as opposed to recording history (i.e., looking backward)?
If that is the case, then in the spirit of the rule, there wouldn’t be a problem with marking repeated positions.
Then again, there isn’t much need to mark repeated positions. If you make a triple-occurrence claim, one of the following will happen:
…your opponent says “sure, I’ll take the draw.”
…your opponent says “no I don’t want the draw.” Then you stop the clock, get the TD and dig through your scoresheet until you figure out whether the position repeated three times.
The wording of the rule does include, “…as an aid to memory…”.
Of course the keeping of the game score and such is a complete aid to memory, for after the game is completed. Yes, the game score is also an aid to memory to make draw claims and so on.
The intent of the rule is obviously that note taking should not be done as an aid to memory in the playing of that game, as the game is progressing. There should be no written notes to aid a player in their decision making for a particular move or set of moves, or a plan.
When playing a rated game, I have remembered something from my professional/personal life and jotted a note or concept down about that during the game. What I wrote was a running mileage plan, a list of things for my office staff to accomplish, etc. Certainly we cannot prohibit someone from doing something like this.
Now, making a mark at a move where a repetition of position most likely will occur does not aid the memory of a player in his future game plan. It is nothing more than a convenience for when the draw claim might occur. I think that since the individual is making such a move, he can make a draw request of his opponent at that move and note this. He can then do so each time he has the position until the third time it is reached where the draw request becomes a draw claim.
Also, putting marks like, “?”, “!” and so on, really don’t aid the memory of a player during the game.
I still recall a young man bringing a number of colored markers in his bag. During the game he would write decorative and commentary type of comments on the score sheet. One time he wrote “BORING” across the top of the sheet in 2 or 3 colors. This was a commentary of his opponent’s opening choice. It was quite funny to watch the opponent’s reaction and all others’ smiles.
Exactly Ron, but I have also seen quite a few players get upset, and this is really not very sportsman like when people write cruel or insulting things on a score sheet and the opponent can read them.
What is tolerated or excused has a strange way of coming back to haunt people, of which our current legal expenses clearly document. The rule is quite simple, and people should follow it, regardless of what excuse they may have.
