Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

[Jonathan Berry]

Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

FIDE is proposing that, as of July 2009, games be forfeited
if a player is not present at the scheduled start of the game.
There may be a "compromise" of 15 minutes suggested, but that
too is flawed.

I need not tell other Canadians about the vagaries of public
transit. A bus may be late or not appear at all. To avoid
forfeiture, bus-enabled players will have to arrive over 30
minutes early, and often stand outside a locked door in the
snow or rain.

That is just one of the nightmares of a zero or 15- minute
rule. Among the others are logistical and administrative.

But here's one that they surely didn't think of: a zero or
15 minute rule encourages cheating. A nasty form of
cheating is the thrown game. In 2008, if a player does
not show up at the start of the round, he is often hunted
down by friends or tournament directors and dragged to the
board before the Rubinstein one hour has elapsed. If he
wants to throw the game, he has to make bad moves, or
intentionally exceed the time control: quite an investment
in time for doing nothing. Either way, he loses both
rating points and face. In 2009, the same player just
appears ten seconds late, apologizes to the opponent, loses
no rating points, experiences no internal conflicts, and
the rest of the day is his.

If forfeit games are rated, that opens up the full
panoply of thrown-game cheating.

If games in which no moves are played are left unrated (
as at present) the zero or 15- minute rule opens up a new
method of cheating. The norm hopeful will have to pay the
unscrupulous opponent simply to show up on time for the
game.

I encourage all FIDE member nations to vote against this
rule change at the 2008 General Assembly in Dresden.

Jonathan Berry
IA, FM, GMC

[Vlad Rekhson]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

As far as I understand the TD's will be able to make it a longer wait time if they wish, but the zero (or 15) would be the minimum, that way there will be some TD discretion to alter this nonsense.

[Lawrence Day]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

grrr..stupidest rule change since pairing top of group vs bottom of group.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

As far as I understand the TD's will be able to make it a longer wait time if they wish, but the zero (or 15) would be the minimum, that way there will be some TD discretion to alter this nonsense.

There is no indication that common sense will enter into this at all:

http://chessexpress.blogspot.com/200...ad-day-11.html

My FIDE source does not confirm your understanding. It may come to pass, or it may be wishful thinking.

[Alex Toolsie]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

There is no indication that common sense will enter into this at all:

http://chessexpress.blogspot.com/200...ad-day-11.html

My FIDE source does not confirm your understanding. It may come to pass, or it may be wishful thinking.

I prefer the 60 minute forfeiture rule. Nothing is sweeter than coming in 50 minutes late and still trouncing your opponent (although I have only done this a few times).

Best Regards,

Alex
______

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

My FIDE source does not confirm your understanding. It may come to pass, or it may be wishful thinking.

Was the time rule a great success at the Olympics? It almost sounds to me like they got the desired result without many if any forfeits.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

Gary,

If you had followed the link in my response to Vlad, you would have seen that there were many forfeitures in the last round (which started 5 hours earlier than Rds 1-10). I guess the most famous one was Tkachiev arriving just a bit late for the match with Azerbaijan. It was the only "decisive" game of the match. As a result, Azerbaijan finished 6th, France 22nd.

There were also forfeits in other rounds. At least half a dozen.

Having played at the 1982 Olympiad, and having been an arbiter in 1984, 1996, 2000, and 2004, I can assure you that players arriving late for their games is rare to exceedlingly rare. In Calvia 2004, for example, it was exceedingly rare.

So, did the 0-minute rule achieve its purpose? I don't know. I don't know what good purpose it might have had.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

So, did the 0-minute rule achieve its purpose? I don't know. I don't know what good purpose it might have had.

Being a former vice president and then president of the large Scarborough Chess Club over around 6 years I'll give you my take on players who came in late.

There would be around 40 to 50 games going. The late player would be clumping around on the noisy wooden floor looking for his opponent and brushing against players as he went by. Kind of distracting for the other players. Then he would find his game, sit down and start making fast moves and banging the clock after each move thinking he'd save a couple of seconds by doing this. Distracting for his opponent and distracting for those at the tables around him.

Maybe FIDE wants to end this practice.

[John Coleman]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

From the Chessexpress link, given above.

"...the Gabon team (of only 3 players) were at the board at the scheduled starting time (10:00 am) and even shook hands with their opponents. However there was a delay to the start (probably no more than a minute) and their Board 1 had to answer an urgent call of nature. While he was gone, the round started and he was defaulted. His team mates protested strongly and when he returned he exclaimed "Which SOB did this?". Despite their protests the result stood and as a consequence the rest of the team stood up and walked out."

It looks as if common sense was sorely lacking. However, having been involved with chess for over 50 years, that doesn't really surprise me.
JC

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

Nobody has contradicted what I found to be a fatal flaw of the zero-minute rule. It facilitates cheating.


Gary,

You're making it sound like there was no TD at the Scarborough Chess Club. But I know there were ones, and they knew the rules. One of them had a perfect score in the TDCP exam. And that no player ever left the room to pee (although there was that incident at the Ottawa RA Club ...) or have a smoke. What you write is a red herring. It has nothing to do with a zero-minute rule.

I don't remember having to speak to any player at the Olympiad about not disturbing the other players. By the time they've become the best players in their countries, the ones who have no manners, or disrespect their opponents, are gone.

I'd guess that the main purpose of the zero-minute rule is that the most photographed players be there for the photo period, which according to Hal has been extended from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. Flash photos for 15 minutes. Oy veh. You may find that a good purpose, I don't know.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

You're making it sound like there was no TD at the Scarborough Chess Club. But I know there were ones, and they knew the rules. One of them had a perfect score in the TDCP exam. And that no player ever left the room to pee (although there was that incident at the Ottawa RA Club ...) or have a smoke. What you write is a red herring. It has nothing to do with a zero-minute rule.

There was always an elected TD. I know I once fired one. We replaced him with a TD who would show up for the events.

I stopped organizing OTB in 1974 when I took on correspondence organizing. Who was the TD who get the perfect score? I don't recall the program or the year it started.

Smoking was no problem back then. Those who wanted to smoke during their game did. Can't recall but I think cigars and pipes might have been out. Now there is no smoking in the playing hall and I'm sure I don't know how the players survive.

Here's something I saw happen a few years ago at a national event. No names. An adult player came in about a half an hour late. The young girl he was playing was waiting patiently. He made his move and headed for the other tables to see how the games were progressing. This went on for several moves.

While the rules allow it, and the player is a real nice person, I thought it was disrespectful of the young opponent. Also distracting. It reminded me of the old days when the foreign titled players used to come for a Canadian Open and read their newspaper while they popped the first round patser.

Zero Tolerance! Why not do a poll with that neat feature on this board?

[John Coleman]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

I suppose this is as good a place as any to tell my "60 minutes" story:

About 25 years ago, I played in a tournament held on the weekend when the clocks "spring forward". Not surprisingly, for the 9.am Sunday round, a few players were not present at the start. My opponent was one of the absentees.

I made my first move, started my opponent's clock, sat for a few minutes, and then strolled around the hall. Players were arriving, and occasionally I looked across the room to my board... no opponent. After about 40 minutes, my wanderings took my past my board, where I was astonished to see a move had been made for my opponent, and MY clock was running. It turned out that my opponent had arrived, shortly after the round started, made his move, and then was wandering round the room, just as I was.

I had lost about 35 minutes on the clock, and eventually lost the game.

[Peter Stockhausen]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

Terrible!! Unheard of!! An insult to humanity!!

Imagine asking a chessplayer to show up ON TIME. I mean NOBODY does that, ever heard of a teacher, a policeman, a fireman, a pilot, a business man, a tennis player, a golf player, a gas station attendant, a waiter, a night auditor show up on time? Of course not.


Cheers
Peter

[Gordon Taylor]

Just defending our historical perquisites

I think what bothers me the most about all this is that this rule change seems to have been dreamed up by certain officials without much consultation or request for feedback. During all my playing years the one hour "Rubinstein" rule was in effect. It was never pleasant having to wait those 60 minutes, unsure if my opponent would show up, but they nearly always did. Same rule applied to me, and it was nice to know that I could sometimes come a few minutes late and not suffer except on the clock. FIDE has been making a lot of these unilateral changes (recall the dress code--whatever happened to that?), and it's high time they took some stick. You may wish to compare chess to golf, but it's a poor comparison. If chess ever treats its elite players as well as golf does, then perhaps chessplayers may be willing to make some concessions.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Evil Days Ahead: End of the Rubinstein Rule

All of the above are jobs. If the chessplayer is being paid, then asking them to show up on time to collect their paycheque is reasonable. If they aren't, then it is not.