A member at my club typically gets up from his own game a few minutes into a round and walks around the room looking at the other games and copying down their opening moves (looking at players’ scoresheets if necessary) on a fresh sheet of paper he carries around for this purpose (not his own scoresheet), presumably to aid in opening preparation against the other players in the future. Is this legal? The TD said he wasn’t aware of a restriction on making notes about other people’s games.
Nothing wrong with it. Some tournaments even have a box for players to submit copies of their scoresheets. Other players can paw throught them to find out who is playing the Benko Gambit, Ruy Lopez, etc. Some big events even have daily bulletins printed of games.
Your club member is not doing anything illegal. Instead, if he wasn’t as obvious as you described (writing the openings down), what if he simply walked around and looked at the games and recorded them in his memory? You wouldn’t have a problem with that, right? You probably do it yourself.
Yes, it’s legal. I know of at least one player at the Pittsburgh Chess Club who does this regularly.
If this bothers you (and I’m not saying it does), you could always keep your own scoresheet/scorebook closed except for when you’re actually writing moves. The TD always has the right to inspect a scoresheet, but that right doesn’t extend to other players.
Indeed I do do that myself. But since the USCF rules of chess distinguish between using one’s memory and taking notes in other circumstances (e.g., while playing your own game), I wondered if a similar distinction were relevant here as well.
No distinction yet, given the circumstances you describe.
Does the USCF web site have a link to its own official rules? I may have missed it, but all I could find was a sales pitch to buy the rulebook for $18.95. Any idea where the link is to simply look at the rules online?
The key element must be that you cannot make or refer to notes about your own game while actually playing that game. But, what is the definition of notes? Could they be cryptic dots on the scoresheet, or the specific placement of captured pieces, pen, coffee, etc. on the side of the board to indicate some sort of specific action to remember (e.g, “I win if I sacrifice my bishop on g6”)?
The answers to your questions are, in order, “no” and “no such link exists”. There are certain legal issues that currently prevent the USCF rulebook from being posted online.
This earlier thread covered a lot of ground on Rule 20C.
The USCF rules are not on-line. There is a contractual issue with McKay. The Delegates directed that those issues be resolved and the rules be posted on line. That deadline has come and gone with no posting.
Thank you both for that sad information. It seems that every day I read about another USCF problem. Is the USCF just unlucky, or is it something else?
The “rules on-line” challenge exists because of a publisher contract that has it’s non digital roots in the middle of the last century. There are those in power that will dispute that interpretation; however, either way the rules are not on-line. Perhaps the “powers that be” (who are those guys?) will have some positive info regarding this topic at the U.S. Open. I do know it has been worked on.
I think that is a correct interpretation Tim. It is sure frustrating. One issue seems to be that the whole deal is so small for the publisher that it is hard to get their attention.
Whose to say that a player doing that is trying to do opening preparation against other players in the future?
I did the same thing about 20 years ago; I was having troubles playing against the Sicilian when I was starting out, so I started to observe any game near mine that had a Sicilian, take some notes while they were still in the opening, and then look to see who won (to know if I should emulate White’s moves or stay away from them). I guess now there are a zillion books that you can buy, but there were not that many options in Mississippi to buy chess books back then.
The only problem I can see with actually writing moves or notes down in the way described is that one can be accused of using notes to help you in the game you are playing. If the paper has moves similar to the position in your game, you can get into trouble.
I have followed the practice of scanning the field to see what openings are popular and what particular opponents are playing and taking mental notes. For example, when I see a number of Semi-Slavs or King’s Indians being played, that changes what I will focus my studies and preparation on in that tournament and future events. Or if I see a particular opponent has added a new opening to his repertoire, that valuable piece of information is worthy of note. At one time, I used to keep a “book” or profile on a number of opponents with info on their openings, typical middlegames, how well they played endgames, and psychological elements. It is my impression that this was a common practice of the old Soviet School of Chess to profile western players and anyone deemed dangerous to Soviet hegemony in chess. My own profiles worked very well for preparation and play. Even profiled myself so that I could change openings and rid myself of certain predictable ways of conducting the fight. I stopped doing the deep profiles when I cut back for a few years on tournament play. Today chess databases make the task easier if you have the time and ambition.
In a tournament I directed several years ago, one player was in time trouble, so he asked a friend to keep score for him. His opponent objected.
I ruled that his friend could keep score, provided he kept the scoresheet out of sight of the player until the game was over, and refrain from any communication with the player during the game. Also, the player would not be able to make any scoresheet-based claim.
In other words, the scoresheet would serve an archival purpose only, e.g. to go over the game afterwards.
Bill Smythe