Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
Alex McFarlane
Here is the fifth (and final – sniff!)
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 fourth instalment click here.
To go back to the “Chess Thoughts” page click here.
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.
As
I mentioned earlier I am writing this at Hastings and that brings to mind perhaps
the most ludicrous story ever which again involved Richard Furness.
A
German player (adult) had a teddy bear that he liked to sit at the board and
face his opponents. One opponent,
prior to play, objected to this. The
arbiter agreed with the objection and provided a chair for the bear to sit
on. However, the German would not have
this and refused to play. He was even
more annoyed to discover that as he had been present he was not defaulted but
deemed to have run out of time and therefore lost rating points from the
‘game’.
But
chess is normally fun. I wouldn’t have
been acting as an arbiter for over 25 years otherwise. Most players are very well behaved and
appreciate the efforts of the control team.
There is, of course, a downside to arbiting – it is how I met my
current partner (I call her my CURRENT to keep her on her toes!!!!).
I
would like to say thanks a lot to Alex for sending in his anecdotes; they
have been very enjoyable to read!!
If
anyone else has a contribution they would like to make to the site just
e-mail it to me at amy_sitemanager@yahoo.co.uk.
Amy
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