In Geurt Gijssen’s current column at chesscafe.com, http://www.chesscafe.com/geurt/geurt.htm, he deals with a case when a player was forfeited by having his phone ring while his opponent had not yet arrived in the tournament hall. The question was whether the game was ratable.
My question here is when does a game begin for USCF rating purposes? I guess I had always thought that any game where Black had made at least one move was ratable, and not otherwise, but I am curious as to what others think considering this column.
I can’t believe that anyone would view a game that never started as ratable. What am I missing that even makes the other side of the question reasonable?
It is possible with enough ingenuity to construct borderline cases – e.g. Black sits at the board thinking for two hours without making a move and lets his flag fall, or Black sits thinking for a while but is forfeited for some unrelated reason (like refusing to stop playing his trumpet at the board) before making a move. However, the case cited at the start of this thread seems pretty clear – game not ratable.
It seems to me, from reading section 1 of the USCF rating regs (P. 260, 5th edition rules book) that it would not be rated (“Games in which one player makes no move are not rated”). The rule specifically includes games decided by time-forfeit but does not mention games decided by, for example, trumpet blaring forfeit.
However, I would think that certainly the opponent who had not arrived on time, if he/she arrives before the time forfeit period, will still get one point for prize/trophy purposes, even if the game is not rated. The player should not be penalized for the misbehavior of his opponent.
