At a recent tournament I was at, the police were called to resolve an altercation in the tournament room just before the games started. I talked to the police officer later and asked if he had ever gotten involved with an actual fight at a chess tournament. He said it did happen once in his experience. The players were actually punching each other.
Anyone ever seen this happen at a tournament?
I directed a tournament in about 2001 that I had to break up a fight. While punches were not thrown yet, they were getting loud and approaching each other, slowly, to start getting physical.
The argument started because one of the guys was mad at the other for forcefully slamming the piece down when delivering Check.
The set and board were mine, by the way.
Not at a rated tournament, but I was once attacked at a chess club when I was serving as the organizer/director. The offender stomped hard on my foot and called me a b***h. He was about six years old 
so I didn’t hit back. I did eject him from the club, and refused to allow him to return a few months later, when his mother had the nerve to ask if he could come back. This was not his first offense, but it was the first physical attack. I suspect he had Oppositional Defiance Disorder or something similar. To their credit, the other kids were horrified at his actions.
Moogy
punched a few clocks but that’s about the extent of it. have seen some rather heated “discussions”. one rather recently between some titled players.
…scot…
Pan Am Intercollegiate Championship. I think it was in 1975. One of the players asked his team captain for the room key. The captain was in severe time trouble and waved him away. The player asked again and was once again waved away. He came back with a goblet of water and dropped it onto the middle of the table, shattering the glass and scattering the pieces. All hell broke loose as the two started throwing punches and fell on the table, breaking the end off. A tournament director came into the room, said “Oh my,” and rushed out. The rest of the players turned to watch for a few seconds but went back to their games as if this was a normal occurrence. The two teams pulled their players off each other. The games resumed.
World Open. Two Russian players got into a heated argument in the hallway over behavior during their game. Each called the other very interesting names in Russian. Punches flew and they ended up wrestling on the ground. No police were called. One bystander said that the two were rivals since childhood and that this was not the first time they had tussled.
Another large tournament. A player was punched in the forehead for slamming pieces after being asked not to do it by his opponent. Knocked right out of his seat. No TD intervention. Play resumed as if nothing happened.
Player was playing a handicapped player in a wheelchair who spoke out his moves so that they could be moved on the board by his opponent. On one move the handicapped player misspoke and called out another move. The other player said “You can’t do that. It is like touch move.” When the handicapped player denied calling the first move, the other guy got angry, went over the table, and grabbed the handicapped player around the throat. He was pulled off the player in the wheelchair. Realizing what he had done, he ran out of the room and did not come back to the tournament. The wheel chair player sheepishly admitted that he did call out a bad move and tried to take it back.
There are more, but I have seen fights between tennis players, pool players, card players, etc. Some think that the tension of games and sports bring out the worst behavior, but I think that the individuals involved would do this under other conditions given their personalities. Chess itself does not bring out the instinct to punch someone.
I agree. Among other activities, I have seen two state senators wrestle each other to the floor in a committee meeting, two state representatives have to be forcibly separated during a floor debate, and bridge partners come to blows over bidding of a hand.
At a tournament I was working, a school teacher was playing the student of another school teacher. Heated words started getting exchanged between the two school teachers. I tried to get between the two, but one landed a punch on the other ones face and drew blood. The police arrived before the tournament organizer. Two days later I noticed a black and blue mark on my arm, which I must have gotten from the follow-thru. I still have a picture of it.
Sure have
But only in adult events.
Does it count if it’s the TDs fighting?
…TKO in Round 3…
Maybe eight years ago at the Continental Open in Sturbridge I saw two older Russian players having a rather heated argument. As it was in Russian, I have no idea what the argument was about. The next day they were quietly joking and smiling together. With Russians I think for some of them there is quite a bit of pressure to win prize money to help support themselves and their families. None of them that I’ve met had a particularly easy time of it, especially if they arrived just after the USSR disintegrated.
Read Larry Parr’s bio “Viktors Pupols: American Master” for an account of one USCF Master decking another on two separate occasions.
As I exited the TD room during a last round game the irate father of a young player had the opponent of his son up against a wall and was in the process of putting his hands around the throat of the young man. I somehow found myself trapped in the middle, fortunately. I say “fortunately” because I managed to both thwart the choking and calm the enraged dad…
See the story of two U.S. Senators: The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War by by Williamjames Hull Hoffer.
As for the question, I plead nolo contendere…
“Float like a butterfly. Sting like a Bishop.”
I can think of a couple of instances: 1988 US Class Championship here in NJ, a big husky “Gentleman” was paired against an 80 somewhat year old man and the big physical man was chewing up a lot of time and was building up a promising looking attacking position, and he then overstepped his time and lost the game, and when the older gentleman claimed the time, the big physical guy grabbed the older gentleman by his shirt and broke some buttons. At that point, the chief tournament director threw the big husky gentleman out of the tournament and treated the older gentleman to a nice dinner. It was also the same round where I was matched up against a very tall opponent who tried to intimidate me and is where I hit him with my “2 one liners” after that game was over, that I had written about earlier.
Also in the 1995 Southwest Class Championship in Dallas, Texas, it was an older gentleman that was causing problems during the 1st round in that tournament, and after he lost his game, he had pulled a knife on another player (not his opponent) and the Dallas police had to be summoned. This older gentleman was one that I personally knew, and fortunately since I was there, the situation could have been a lot worse if I had decided to play in another tournament that same weekend.
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ
In 1973 in a Brooklyn tournament, 2 players had an argument about an alleged touch-move violation. The TD managed to settle it. The game resumed. A couple of minutes later, one of the guys lit up a cigar, in those days one could smoke, and seemed to blow it in the other guy’s direction only when it was the other guy’s move. The smoke victim soon had enough and the fists flew. My board was right next to it, so, being a skinny 17 year old, I fled. About 3 boards (mine was one) were knocked over before peace was restored. Funny thing is, once the game resumed, both players continued very peacefully.
I helped break up the fight depicted in Searching for Bobby Fischer at the New York State Scholastics, though that was with two parents. One of my tournaments in Ithaca had a fistfight with two players.
No fights between players, but I was once Chief TD of our state scholastic team tournament when I had to get the police officer we had working security to get between two chess dads who appeared to be about to come to blows. Their sons were matched against each other, and each dad was convinced that the other dad was signaling his son. That incident was one reason why we no longer allow parents to view games in progress at scholastic events. The officer ordered the dads out of the room and to different parts of the holding area out of view of the players. After their game was over I questioned the two boys, and each said that he had been so engrossed in the play that he didn’t even realize his dad was watching the game.