Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
Alex
McFarlane
Here is the third instalment of Alex
McFarlane’s Arbiter Anecdotes.
To view the first instalment click here.
To view the second instalment click here.
To view the fourth instalment click here.
To view the final instalment click here.
To go back to the “Chess Thoughts” page click here.
The daftest tournament I have ever run must have been the
all-night allegro held in a circus tent in the middle of a Paisley park. Even in late June it was freezing cold come
3 a.m. We had two events, one from 7
till 11.30 and the other from midnight until 7 a.m. One elderly competitor had entered only the
midnight event. Failing to find the
open park gate he climbed a 6 foot fence, landed badly and spraining his
ankle. He played the whole night with
his foot wrapped in a cold towel and I took him to the hospital closest to
his house after the event finished.
Had he even walked a few yards further he would have found a gap in
the railings.
The daftest tournament I have played in was one staged to mark
the centenary of the Scottish Chess Association (now called Chess
Scotland). This tournament took place
on the top of Ben Nevis. The weather was terrible and the 4 player
all-play-all allegro quickly became a five-minute knock-out. Two people played, whilst one tried to
shelter the board from the howling wind as the wooden pieces were aquaplaning
across the board in the sleety conditions.
The 4th took photographs.
One event I was certainly pleased to see finish!!
We don’t often see violence at chess matches but I have seen a
player tip a wooden board over his opponent after he lost a game in the Under
16 Championship at the British and at a schools’
team tournament I was threatened with violence by a teacher in charge of one
of the teams. My crime – I had ordered
a play-off for first place rather than awarding it to his team on game
points!! A friendly 20 stone judo
instructor coaching elsewhere in the building ensured that I came to no harm.
In my role as Chief Arbiter at the British, I had to ask one
player to leave the building after he threatened to ‘sort out’ the arbiter in
‘the old fashioned way’. Did this
incident take place during an important tie?
No! It was during one of the evening SOCIAL events organised for fun.
I have been in charge of the British Championship for 4 years
now and during that time it has never been won by an English player but twice
by Jonathan Rowson and twice by Indian
players. I must say that even though I
do the pairings I cannot claim any credit for this. But whilst I was serving my apprenticeship
I worked under the late Richard Furness.
He was infuriated by this Indian player who kept leaving her banana
skins at the board for the arbiters to put in the bin. So much so that each evening he would
collect her rubbish and save it. The
following afternoon it would mysteriously appear at her board just prior to
the start of play. After a few rounds
she took the hint.
Because of a shortage of available dates I once controlled two
events on the same day. Nothing too
unusual in this, except that whilst the events took place at more or less the
same time one was in Wester Hailes,
Edinburgh and the other at the YMCA in Paisley. The Paisley event was the last two rounds
of the local championship whilst at Wester Hailes there was a junior allegro. I arranged the times so that I could start
off the first two rounds at Wester Hailes then travel to Paisley
for the quick-play finish and do the last round draw (a player had agreed to
start play here). I then travelled back to Edinburgh for rounds 4 and 5 (round three
pairings were done by someone else over the lunch break so he had plenty of
time to do the draw. I then travelled
back to Paisley for the final round quickplay finishes and the prize-giving!
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