34
votes
Accepted
Should a player be forced to move a piece that he has picked up after a spectator knocked it off the board?
I am not an arbiter, but here's what the rules say:
Rule 4.3 (emphasis added)
if the player having the move touches on the chessboard, with the intention of moving or capturing
I think it should ...
- 10.2k
23
votes
Accepted
Ambiguity in notation resolved by +
Would it be sufficient here to write Ne4+ (meaning Nce4) only (i.e.
without the "c" but with "+"), as Nfe4 would not be check?
It depends on exactly what you mean by "sufficient". By "normal" ...
- 74.4k
19
votes
Accepted
In the USA, if you achieve a USCF rating of 2200 and gain the National Master title, what happens if your rating then goes below 2200?
There are actually three different distinctions in the USCF system that have to do with a 2200 rating.
First is the National Master title. It is awarded to anyone who has ever had an established (not ...
- 7,378
18
votes
Ambiguity in notation resolved by +
The FIDE Laws of Chess 2018 are unambiguous: you should write Nce4, and the + sign is optional and not disambiguating. Ne4+ is not sufficient.
Appendix C (algebraic notation), article C.10 basically ...
- 4,830
18
votes
Can a player be forced to adjust a piece?
When FIDE tournament rules apply: If you displace one or more pieces – knocking off the board, intentionally or unintentionally, is a displacement – you have to re-establish the correct position on ...
- 1,657
17
votes
Can a player be forced to adjust a piece?
According to the Laws of Chess:
7.4.1 If a player displaces one or more pieces, he shall re-establish the correct position in his own time.
Of course, in this situation, it is not the player who ...
- 15.1k
15
votes
Should a player be forced to move a piece that he has picked up after a spectator knocked it off the board?
When did this happen? Because there is no reasonable interpretation of the current rules by which a TD should have upheld the touch-move claim.
I went back and looked at the 3rd Edition rulebook, ...
- 3,469
11
votes
Accepted
Does a chess position exists where one player has insufficient material, and at the same time has a forced mate in 2?
After white plays the first move in the forced sequence, black's best move (with USCF rules) would be to let the clock run out because it would be a draw.
No, it wouldn't be a draw if there was a ...
- 15.1k
10
votes
What happens should a clock fail during the game?
Per FIDE rules 6.10a and 6.10b (I am including the latter since it is so closely related in that it can require the arbiter to adjust the times based on judgment):
6.10 a. Every indication given by ...
- 31.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Illegal Move Missed-Too Late?
The FIDE rules say this:
7.5 If during a game it is found that an illegal move has been completed, the position immediately before the irregularity shall be
reinstated. If the position ...
- 364
8
votes
USCF Ruling - Resignation confusion after reaching results sheet
The correct decision here is to send the players back to finish their game. There's a very good rule of thumb that TD's use in situations like this - if the two players don't agree on the result of ...
- 14.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Expert vs. Candidate Master?
The USCF has two independent systems for naming players' levels:
1) Rating-based: Senior Master (2400+), National Master (2200-2399), Expert (2000-2199), Class A (1800-1999), Class B (1600-1799), etc....
- 14.5k
8
votes
When a US tournament entry is limited based on rating, when is the rating checked?
The rules are specific to each tournament. For example 2021 U.S. Class Chess Championships specified "July 2021 Rating Supplement used for pairings and Prizes".
- 3,858
7
votes
Accepted
If a tournament advertises G/30, can either player demand G/25 d5?
You don't have grounds to demand the time control you like. In practice I suppose that if your opponent agrees, you could get away with using whatever time control you both want as long as the game ...
- 10.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to resign in stalemate?
Can you resign in a stalemated position?
No. Stalemate ends the game. Nothing further is possible after that.
According to the FIDE Laws of Chess:
5.2.1 The game is drawn when the player to move has ...
- 74.4k
7
votes
Does a chess position exists where one player has insufficient material, and at the same time has a forced mate in 2?
You have misunderstood the rules. What you describe is incompatible with the FIDE Laws of Chess. There is no concept of "insufficient material". This is what they say:
5.2.2 The game is ...
- 74.4k
6
votes
Why does it seem that one drops more rating points when losing than gaining when winning?
I suspect it's a result of you not really knowing the rating of the player you're playing. Posted rating for a player in a tournament is typically already out of date. You can see it in more detail by ...
- 5,164
6
votes
Accepted
Does an out of turn draw offer constitute an actionable distraction / time penalty?
According to my copy of US Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (5th Edition), rule 14B2 states:
If a player offers a draw while the opponent's clock is running, the
opponent may accept or ...
- 15.1k
6
votes
Accepted
Is it OK to adjust your opponent's pieces, and what if he objects?
Is it OK per the rules to adjust your opponent's pieces?
YES
The rules are clear:
4.2.1 Only the player having the move may adjust one or more pieces on their squares, provided that he first ...
- 74.4k
6
votes
What happens should a clock fail during the game?
This was more of a problem with the earlier generation (early 2000's) of digital clocks. One of them had a fault which meant that if you gave it a bit of a smack then the battery might jiggle inside, ...
- 74.4k
6
votes
Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When Writing Notation is Optional?
Here is what the FIDE Laws of Chess taking effect from 1 January 2018 have to say. There are two relevant sections, one for the general rules and one for special rules for rapid and blitz time ...
- 74.4k
5
votes
Does an out of turn draw offer constitute an actionable distraction / time penalty?
I don't know about USCF rules, but according to FIDE Laws of Chess, article 9.1.b.1:
A player wishing to offer a draw shall do so after having made a move on the chessboard and before pressing his ...
- 20.3k
5
votes
If a tournament advertises G/30, can either player demand G/25 d5?
You are close, but not quite right.
I just spoke with a friend of mine, who has been a tournament director for over 40 years, USCF Senior TD Henry L. Terrie III (Hal Terrie). He told me that when you ...
- 31.9k
5
votes
What if you messed up your notation a lot?
Is there any rule regarding having a lot of mistakes? Furthermore,
what if you deliberately make mistakes such as writing in a random
move every turn?
There is no obvious rule against this. The ...
- 74.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When Writing Notation is Optional?
I can't answer this question with relation to FIDE rules, but I can tell you what the USCF rules are.
From the perspective of the USCF rules, neither of the time controls you propose (either 30+30, or ...
- 3,469
5
votes
Accepted
Questions about USCF Tournaments Requirements to Get the U.S. Chess Master Title
The USCF has three different titles that are all colloquially referred to as "national master".
First and most commonly, any player that achieves a rating of 2200 or higher receives the ...
- 14.9k
4
votes
What are the average Elo and USCF ratings?
An updated rating distribution graph:
The data is from the Golden Database. It uses data from just current members with established (non provisional) ratings. Note that only "regular" ratings are ...
- 41
4
votes
Do you get moved down a section on a USCF chess tournament if your score is low?
You do not get moved out of your bracket. If you're a B-player in the Expert section, expect to finish at the bottom. I'm not even sure if you're allowed to 'play up' unless you play in the open ...
- 19.8k
4
votes
How does Chesscube.com rating compare to USCF and FIDE ratings?
There is no way to directly compare ratings from distinct populations.
However, it's not true that online chess and OTB populations are really distinct. There are players who have ratings in both ...
- 4,322
4
votes
Rating system for 5000 players
It seems that rankade, our ranking system for sports, games, and more, fits your needs.
It's free to use and it's designed to manage rankings (and stats, including matchup stats, and more) for small ...
- 433
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible