When I walked away from the board during the 2nd round my travel companion stated,“Be careful, you still have a won game.” He is a prize winner. Isn’t this a violation of the rules. And what consequences should he have faced?
This is covered under rule 20E2 Unsolicited advice. “The giver deserves a penalty”. The rule book gives specific suggestions based on how helpful the advice may have been to the player for his game, but not the spectator. For example, if you had a won position and knew it, you received no extra advantage from the advice.
For the spectator, depending on the specifics, I might give a warning that if it happens again that the spectator would be ejected from the tournament hall, or immediate ejection. Two of the factors I would consider are 1) did the spectator know what he did was wrong, and 2) does he have a history of “helping”. Spectators have no rights. I got the impression that no TD was notified of this spectator’s actions. You also didn’t state if this spectator was also a player in the same tournament. If so, more can be done including a penalty to the playing spectator in his role as a player.
One place where the rule book is not specific is what penalties should be given based on violations beyond the basic ones. It’s difficult for rules to cover every situation. If I felt your travel companion made an ignorant mistake, I’d educate him and warn him that the next violation would mean ejection. If he knew what he did wasn’t allowed, immediate ejection.
Over the years, I have been amazed at how many spectators don’t know that giving advice during the game is not allowed. The most common spectator advice I’ve witnessed is the calling of flags, calling illegal moves, and reminding players to press their clocks.
On rare occasions, I’ve had playing spectators tell me things like “you opponent just moved” while I was away from the board. I always tell that spectator “you’re not allowed to tell me that” and to date, no one has ever “helped” me a second time. If I did get a second “help”, I’d want that person away from me as I don’t want his help or his behavior to jeopardize my result. Did you say anything to your travel companion? If not, you should have.
As I stated this individual was a player who won a cash prize. I immediately chastised him upon the completion of my game.His body language told me that he knew this was a violation of the rules. I’m a former State Champion, and I think he was trying to impress me. I attempted to air this situation at my state chapter on it’s web site but the principals deleted it because they claimed it did not contribute to the cordiality among the chess community in South Carolina. I have for the 2nd time in forty years withdrawn from all chess activities there. I took a 13 year hiatus because of the racism omnipresent there; it’s like walking into a Denny’s whenever I participate in a tourney in South Carolina. Yes, I am a proud African-American and the first of my race to win the State Championship there, 1990.
I don’t doubt your account of the racism, and I’m sorry to hear that. But I doubt that the racists are representative of most SC players. Play in GA and NC: stronger chess states, anyway.
I admire you for insisting on playing by the rules, especially when you suffered no harm and could have derived a theoretical benefit from the unwanted “advice.” But I think the right course is to inform the TD, let the TD rule, and (to the extent possible) leave the incident at the event.
I’m not sure how profitable it is to air the complaint on the state association forum. On rare occasions (these days) Southern cordiality is thinly-veiled racism (the same strategy can be found “up here,” too), more often, it’s a combination of common sense and good manners.
I misread your first post in that I thought your second sentence was inside the quotes.
If I, or one of the other World Open TDs, had been told about this player’s behavior, we would have educated him on the rules. My guess is that now that you’ve told him, he won’t try this again with you. If you’re right about him knowing what he did was wrong, then he may do it again with other players.
If you like to play chess, you shouldn’t let the actions of a few, stop you. As for their reasons for deleting your post, I wouldn’t have deleted it. If you read the USCF forums, then you certainly know that not everyone here is always cordial. I think this would have been a good way to educate the masses about proper behavior by spectators at a tournament.
Last year I made a post on another state affiliate’s website about a player nullifying his own 3-fold claim and at least other reader learned the proper way to make the claim from it and thanked me.