Since we have a few “What would you do” threads started (Thanks Fantasychess!), I thought I would throw one of my recent issues out.
At this year’s Virginia State Scholastic, I was called over to 2 kids in the K3 section who had a problem. The player with Black had 2 bishops on the black squares early in the middlegame (no pawns had promoted). Neither player had a scoresheet. (They were required for K5, K8, and K12, but only encouraged for K3.) Neither player could remember when the shift from a light square to a dark square had occurred.
I had no basis for ‘has it been 10 moves’ since the illegal position occurred, and no way to reconstruct. What ended up happening was one of the players asking if they could start over, and the other player thought that was a good idea, so we grabbed that solution and re-started their game.
What would other people have done in this example, and what would people have done if one or both players objected to starting over??
11B. Illegal move prior to last ten moves. If it is found that an illegal move was made prior to each player’s last ten moves, the illegal move shall stand and the game shall continue.
Furthermore,
11D. Illegal move in sudden death. If, in a sudden death control, a player completes an illegal move by pressing the clock, in addition to the usual obligation to make a legal move with the touched piece if possible, two minutes shall be added to the remaining time of the opponent of the player who made the illegal move.
In any case, starting the game over is not good advice whether or not both players agree or disagree. The game must continue as stands. The opponent of the player with the illegal position will have 2 minutes added to his clock.
Apparently it is, because we did it. It just may not be a GOOD option.
Remember that I’m talking about a game between 2 first graders, no score sheet, no clock in use to add a penalty to. My main thought was to try to get a good game in between these 2 kids. They knew that there was a problem, they had no idea when the problem occured, and they had no good way to get out of the position.
Personally, I’m comfortable with the decision. (But I still flagged down a higher TD to ensure that they were OK with it) Would my ruling have been the same in a U2200 section? No. It wouldn’t have been the same in any game where a scoresheet was required. But when dealing with 5-6 year olds, I think that there should be a little bit of flexibility in making a ruling that ends up with a proper game.
OK - I didn’t catch that there were 2 1st graders here.
Still I do not like the “lets start over option.” It seems that the best solution would have been to play it as it stood. These are always difficult because the kids have no clue. Another option, contrary to all the TD rules and guidance, would be to slip that bishop to a legal square - given that we are talking absolute beginners here. I don’t like that very much either and have never done it, but it could be regarded as a teaching thing. Lets face it -these kids are in the event to start to learn something and this is not the national championship. Which is why the start over option is not horrible here.
We often have separate K-1 sections to try to pull the clueless out from the more experienced K-2/3 players. I have considered non-rated K-1 sections for true beginners, but we haven’t done it.
I agree with you, especially since the kids themselves suggested it. (It might not always work in other situations, though, due to lack of time, failure to agree, etc.)
Our K-1 section is unrated, and has worked out very well. When started off with those sections rated we had kids who won the section several times end out with 1100 ratings. When they got into sections with older kids their rating and ego took a beating.
We also have a 2-5 unrated section for kids who are just starting in tournaments in these grades. After they win the section or score 3-1 several times we bump them up to Primary or Elementary sections. Though I’ve been surprised at how many of those kids after going 4-0 in the unrated section proceed to go 0-4 in the rated section.
We’re still trying to find the balance between when it’s time to move up, and when it’s appropriate to move back down.
