Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
Alex McFarlane
Here is the fourth instalment of Alex
McFarlane’s Arbiter Anecdotes.
To view the first instalment click here.
To view the second instalment click here.
To view the third instalment click here.
To view the last instalment click here.
To go back to the “Chess Thoughts” page click here.
Even
accompanying juniors to International events can lead to interesting
situations. At a Wales v Scotland
match the Welsh arbiter wrongly refused a Scottish player’s draw by
repetition claim. I was Scottish
manager at the time but could not query the decision as I was too busy
stopping one of the adults with the Scotland party from, at best,
verbally assaulting the arbiter. The
Scottish player eventually lost the game but after a quiet word with my Welsh
counterpart and playing through the game to confirm the arbiter’s mistake the
game was declared drawn.
The
Irish are so laid-back that they seem to be beyond horizontal. Digital clocks were used on one occasion
but the local arbiter was unable, and unwilling to learn how to, set the
clocks. I had to set them all and do
any alterations. I was also asked to take over arbiting
at one event as the arbiter had to go home – he had forgotten to bring the
trophies with him!! I have to say that
during my time in charge the room was considerably quieter, the previous
arbiter had not considered it necessary to keep silence – and since all of
the Scots, most of the Welsh and some of the Irish players at the event knew
me anyway just walking up to noise makers in the first few minutes was
enough.
A
more serious situation was the arbiter who didn’t know the Laws on how to penalise
an illegal move. Of course he didn’t
have a copy of the Laws and wouldn’t take my word for it. He did eventually give the Scottish player
an extra minute. But I still had to assure the player’s irate father that
this was more than enough time to win and a nod from his son who had heard my
stage whisper was enough to restore diplomatic relations.
Phil
Giulian has many tales about the lack of quality of
arbiters at Olympiads (World Team Championships). On one occasion his wife who had filled up
her score sheet at move 60 was told that she could not get a continuation
sheet until her flag had fallen – don’t ask me to explain that one. Perhaps the best of the lot was the
arbiter, who when asked to decide on a draw by repetition claim, simply ran
away.
‘Rain
stopped play’ is a phrase commonly used in cricket – though how anyone stays
awake long enough to notice is beyond me – but would you expect it to be used
in chess? Well, it has happened to me three
times. Once at Paisley YMCA when a heavy wind removed the tarpaulin which was
there during roofing repairs and twice at the British Championships (Torquay
and Edinburgh). On all of these
occasions players had to be moved to another board. Strangely I have controlled at two outdoor
allegros (at Stirling and Glasgow) where the
weather was no problem, though at George square in Glasgow the pigeons did threaten a few
bombing raids, fortunately all off target.
At
the Torquay event I also had a player come up to me and say “I am hearing
voices”. Looking round and failing to
see the men in white jackets coming for him I enquire further. It transpired that the shape of the building
was causing it to pick up signals from a local taxi firm and transmit them in
a limited area of the hall. But it was
really quite spooky to hear what seemed to be whispers from ghosts.
At
Blackpool this year Lara and I had to move
some boards because it was SNOWING on them!!!
I’m not sure snow was actually coming in through the glass roof – I
think it more likely that it was condensation freezing on the snow covered
roof and falling as snow, but it was certainly a first for me. The weather here was so bad that at one
time we were stuck there. The prize
giving was cancelled and players tried to make their way home as soon as
their game was finished. I left
Blackpool after the event knowing that I should be able to get to Carlisle but not sure if I would get any further
north. Fortunately the worst of the
weather had passed and I was able to get home at a reasonable hour.
All
players know what soap is; most even know how to use it. Unfortunately, however, some players’
personal hygiene leaves much to be desired.
Tact and diplomacy are needed in these situations – so I’m NOT the one
to handle it. But seriously, I have
had to alter seating arrangements to avoid players sitting together and
whilst I have never yet spoken to a player himself (yes it is always men in
this situation) I have spoken to friends of his and suggested that they have
a quiet word.
I
did once threaten to ban a player if he continued to eat cold baked beans
from a tin beside his board. As well
as this being distracting to all around the after-effects were, how shall I
put it, ‘suffocating’ and probably contributed more to global warming than
the methane from an average herd of cows.
One
of the most difficult jobs for the arbiter to deal with is time scrambles.
During a time scramble the arbiter is expected to record as the players play
100 miles per hour chess. You must
keep one eye on the board, one on the score sheet that you are recording on
and one on the clock. Oops that’s
three eyes – only specky arbiters need apply. In one time scramble that I dealt with the
players blitzed out the required 12 moves as I recorded. They then asked if they had made the time
control. I informed them that I was
not allowed to say until a flag falls.
They agreed with each other that they had but played a couple of moves
more to make sure. These were played
at a reasonable pace so I relaxed. But
suddenly both players started blitzing again.
I was caught unawares and could do nothing but keep count and hope to
reconstruct, which we did a further 12 moves later. I witnessed another time scramble where the
players not only reached the required time control but played over 20 moves
EXTRA and by the time a flag fell they had gone through the NEXT time
control.
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