I had an incident recently where a games was going on, both players were under five minutes, so both of them chose not to keep score. A parent then walked over and sat next to his daughter and picked up her score sheet (in this case it is a monroi) and continued to record the game. I told him he can not keep score for the player during the game. My understanding is he can write the moves down on another piece of paper, but he can not keep score on the original score sheet as it could help make claims if needed. In this case the result was decisive and never in doubt. He kept saying “Show me in the rule book.” and refused to listen to my direction.
Any thoughts on this. Was I out of line or my request just clearly wrong. Is there any specific rules I can point out in the USCF rulebook to explain this situation for future reference?
You were completely correct. Rule 15A covers this. Rule 15A1 covers certain exceptions that relate to when players may be excused from keeping score. However, none of these exceptions allow for surrogate scorekeepers due to time pressure.
The parent was completely out of line. How harshly you deal with this parent is a matter of personal taste. My general rule is, the larger or more important the event, the closer I move toward zero tolerance for such people.
Whenever someone harps at me about the rule book, I’ve come to favor the response, “There’s no rule that says I have to show you the rule.”
You were not out of line or clearly wrong, per Boyd’s post about rule 15. Your ruling, however, is not the only valid ruling available.
Rule 15 is that each player (not a parent) is required to keep score. Page 55 has 15A1a and 15A1b which describe cases where a player is allowed to have an assistant keep score for them, but those are obviously inapplicable in this case because the player had been keeping score up to the time pressure situation. In the rulebook 15C (p57) allows a player to be excused from scorekeeping during time pressure such as you describe. The bottom of p55 under “unable to keep score” (in the section for when the player does not keep score) starts the line “players excused from scorekeeping are not entitled to make claims that require scoresheets”. If somebody else is writing down moves on another piece of paper (in situations where such writing would not be considered a disturbnce) that is not a scoresheet and not usable as a scoresheet. If that had been done (and that piece of paper not used by the player for any reason during the game) then there wouldn’t have been a problem with the (non)scoresheet. Since you didn’t mention it, it sounds like spectators actually were allowed (at least to some extent) as otherwise the presence of the parent would have been prohibited anyway.
Part of the problem here is that a Monroi was being used rather than a paper scoresheet, and the parent wanted to continue on that.
Personally, and here is where TD discretion comes in so any TD is allowed to disagree with this, if it was the end of a sudden death time control and the situation was such where a parent would have been allowed to write the moves on a seperate piece of paper then I would have considered (not necessarily allowed, but at least considered) ruling that the parent could keep score on the Monroi and that per the printed rulebook’s 15C and 15A the scoresheet was permanently no longer usable for any claims (an extension of making unusable-for-claims the seperate piece of paper that the time pressure moves could have been written on). If it was during the end of a non sudden death time control then 15F in the rulebook (p58) says that it is the player’s responsibility to fill in any missing moves after reaching time control and the parent’s involvement would violate that rule, so even considering allowing it on a Monroi (or on the official paper scoresheet) is out in that case. Remember that spectators should not impact the game, so requiring all spectators to stand back a bit and not sit next to the players is an option (even if allowing the parent’s tracking of the moves).
From a practical standpoint there are times that a scoresheet is useful to resolve discrepencies or questions about the position (blitzing moves risks accidentally knocking over pieces and resetting them erroneously) and having a no-longer-official-for-claims scoresheet can be useful for the TD (not the player) to use resolving them (similar to having a witness - just use it with the same regard for potential bias that any witness would have).
So, to recap, rule 15 is enough for you to rule that a parent cannot continue keeping score on a scoresheet and, if you even allowed it as a non-distraction-risk, the parent would have to write the moves on a different piece of paper if the parent wanted a record of them. You could have allowed, but didn’t have to allow, the moves to continue to be written on a scoresheet with the understanding that the scoresheet was no longer usable for claims.
For reference purposes only, the IL High School Assn explicitly allows teammates to keep score for players in time pressure but makes any such scoresheets where that is done no longer usable for claims and requires such scorekeeping to be done by a teammate standing behind the player and not sitting at the table. One downside of that IHSA regulation is that high school players that play in non-IHSA events sometimes forget that the rule is only an IHSA rule and try to have it done in other events (such as the non-USCF-rated Chicago Industrial Chess League matches that my club participates in).
My ruling would have been that the parent could keep score but only under the following restrictions. The score sheet must be kept separate and totally out of sight of both players with absolutely no communication with the players, even indirectly.
I would very strongly encourage you to establish a rule for scholastic tournaments that neither parents nor coaches are allowed in the playing area at any time a round is in progress, whether or not their child’s game is in progress. Believe me, your sanity will thank you for this.
Such situations as you describe (basically, a pushy parent barging in and demanding his own way) can lead to much bigger headaches. What if another parent (the child’s opponent’s parent) were to conclude that the first parent was helping the child with the game and then to start complaining?
In Maryland for scholastic tournaments, we do have a rule that parents are not allowed in the playing floor with the children once the rounds begin.
However, I have some knowledge of this tournament (not this situation), this one is an adult tournament where spectators are allowed and highly-rated children do compete. Therefore, this situation can arise.
I disagree with your statement that keeping score on the original scoresheet “could help make claims if needed.” That’s exactly the point: If the parent writes on the original scoresheet, it immediately becomes ineligible to be used to make claims (particularly if it’s a Monroi, since you won’t even have a difference in handwriting to indicate what was recorded by the player and what was recorded by the parent).
Other things to consider are:
If the parent is recording his daughter’s moves, it needs to be done in a way that insures he is not giving advice to her (see rules 20E and 20M6).
If the other player claims that he/she is being disturbed by the fact that the girl’s father is recording the game, you should disallow it (see rule 20M1).
This is something that we do, routinely, in our weekend and even club night tournaments.
When a player goes under 5 minutes, it is common for someone to keep notation for him so the player(s) can have a record of the moves.
This has been done with written score sheets and the electronic one, both Monroi and eNotate.
We have a number of younger players in our tournaments, and a good number bring their kids. It would not be uncommon for a parent to simply pick up the score sheet or electronic device to keep the game score.
It is also common for players to ask someone, anyone close by, to keep the score for him/her.
The game is under 5 minutes for at least one player, and often both of them. i have never seen a draw or other issue come up where the game score was needed. If the player wants to invoke the 50 move rule, he usually asks a TD to count. We have had the TD count or put a “counter” on it.
So yes, it needs to be that the game score taken, cannot be used for such claims, but so what?
This is very different from someone keeping the score for the player when he has more than 5 minutes left on his clock.
At small local events I have allowed parents to do the notation. HOWEVER, I do instruct them that
at no time is there any possibility that this scoresheet, whether electronic or not will be use for
any type of complaint made. But, more and more, I and many organizers I know, simply are finding
tournament management far easier to simply bump the parents/surrogates out of the room, or in
any event, far away from the playing area. Certainly in scholastics, it is the common practice to
omit parents from the playing area.
