This topic applies to regular events, as (at least in most DFW events) we kick parents/coaches out of the scholastic playing area.
The allegations that seem to be increasing, (and nearly always coming at the end of games by the
parents usually, and kids sometimes, upon losing), is that their parent’s said something in a foreign
language and then all of a sudden, their opponent made amazing moves. Sometimes the allegations are that the child leaves the board to ask parents, and sometimes that the parent says something to
child at board.
Also, the vast majority of these complaints seem to come from parents of novice level players. I have
requested to these supposed offenders that English be used if they are to communicate during games
with their kids. There are a number of very legitimate reasons a very young child may wish to
communicate with mommy or daddy. I am not really sure how this could be barred.
This certainly sounds familiar, except that in Massachusetts it’s often adults playing against children who are complaining, loudly and openly in some cases. I wonder why the bolded paragraph in the 4th edition rulebook was removed in the 5th edition:
No kidding. Great point, Bob. What causes huge problems are parents who “get in the face” of their
child’s opponent (esp if it is a kid) after their child has a story to tell. Then naturally, the child goes
crying to their parents, and civil discourse erupts.
I’d guess that one reason for the larger number of accusations is that now there are programs anybody can run that are much stronger than the scholastic players (heck, often they are much stronger than GMs). In past years you could point out that a kid taking advice from a parent would often (sometimes virtually always) end up worse off than if no advice had been offered. Nowadays with chess apps on cell phones there is no longer a clear-cut differentiation between the kids’ and parents’ strengths.
In the past a kid in a bathroom stall wouldn’t have a cell phone in a pocket that could outperform a GM, so bathroom breaks were pretty much benign (assuming that a strong friend of the kid wasn’t also in the bathroom).
Now many previously innocuous activities can be viewed as suspicious by somebody looking for anything at all that can be deemed suspicious.
As far as the code of ethics goes, I guess I’d have to ask how many players, parents and coaches even knew it existed. If there is a rule that only a few people know then that makes a lot of people subject to ethical violations that they had idea existed.
If the ethical violations are put clearly on the website then such a paragraph may become usable again (though the great number of things that people want prominently displayed on the website may end up crowding out such a paragraph).
It may be necessary to have some announcements before a tournament begins, backed up by flyers and education sessions for parents to explain to them what acceptable communication they can have with their children. Alleging someone is cheating is ratcheting up complaints to the highest degree. The parent that does that must be made to realize that he has taken a drastic step, that if proven false, open him up to expulsion from the venue, ejection of his child from the tournament, and in this litigious world we live in a suit for defamation if the other side desires to take equally drastic action.
Having heard a few allegations over the years, I have found almost all of them were based on flimsy grounds, misinterpretations of the rules, extreme pressure to win at all costs, or blatantly trying to disturb and rattle the opponent. None of the allegations came from the kids. All came from outside the velvet ropes. It is one of the reasons that I prefer that no adults besides the TDs be allowed into the playing room in a scholastic event. The kids play better without the parental pressure. Kids may have some really silly behaviors while they play, just like they have when they are in school. What adults interpret is cheating is just kids being silly with each other. The kids realize it is a game; some parents think it is WW III.
At one tournament, one of my students went outside of the playing hall to talk to his dad. I exploded all over him and his dad for doing that. The appearance of impropriety was clear. Was the conversation innocuous? Could not tell because it was held in another language. That made it worse. I had a long talk with the father and made it crystal clear that under no circumstances was his child to come out and talk to me as his coach, or to talk to his Dad or to anyone else. This is something that must be made more clear to parents. They want to be heavily involved in their children’s activities. But in terms of competition, they must stay out of what their children are doing. It directly and negatively affects the child’s performance. The kids want to win or lose on their own. You cannot hit the ball for them. You can’t put the ball in the basket for them. The attempt to live vicariously through your kids does not help them to grow up.
I’ve always been amazed at how many allegations arise once a player starts to lose.
I have relatively little experience with the exact fact pattern you are describing, mostly because the parents of kids who play in “regular” events here in Utah are often novice players who could not help their child even if they tried.
I generally explain to any parent that attempts to make any type of claim on behalf of their child that the player themselves needs to make the claim. That doesn’t go over well but I do it anyway.
I do explain to parents that unlike at scholastic tournaments (where I kick them out) they can observe their child play but that if any of the players ask them to leave then they should leave. I don’t have the rulebook cite handy but that is the rule.
I also explain (usually an announcement as we begin) that we do live in a world where some parents would cheat by assisting their child during the game and while I’m certain none of the parents in the room would do that; I do request that they not put me in an awkward position by speaking with their child during the game or doing anything else, such as hand signalling, or running an engine on a portable device anywhere near the playing hall, that could give the appearance of cheating. I do also ask that people use English only.
My other standard announcement is that players need to make claims at the time of the incident. I go so far as to say that I can fix almost anything at the time but am usually powerless several moves later. I think this situation is an example of that (albeit not the best example). If I’m called over right after a parent said something to a child in a foreign langauge and can observe the moves on the board at that point (and can prevent the parent from any further action) than I can at least form an opinion about what happened. If I’m called over at the end and am told that something was said 15 moves ago and that the child then began to “play good moves” there is relativley little I can do.
This seems to be the key. During the game, players shouldn’t be communicating with anyone. When I ran scholastics, we had a rope line between the playing area and spectator area. During the game there was no crossing the line. Our games were short enough that bathroom breaks were unnecessary, so that would complicate things in longer games, but in most games a hard and fast rule that thou shalt not talk to anyone during the game seems pretty reasonable.
If they aren’t communicating at all, who cares what language they use to not communicate?
If they do have a need to communicate, telling people they cannot use their native tongue to do so doesn’t seem reasonable.
The problem we had at a recent tournament in Massachusetts was that (a) it wasn’t a scholastic tournament, it was an adult tournament where a child was playing against adults and beating them, and (b) the child’s father is a master-strength player.
I don’t want to tell the father that he can’t watch his child’s games. It’s one thing to bar parents from the playing room for a G/45 or G/60 game, as we do for scholastic tournaments. It’s much worse to keep them out for a 5 or 6 hour long game. What I want is for the floor TDs to keep a close watch on the child, not because I think the child is getting help but in order to demonstrate to the opponents that the child isn’t getting help. Unfortunately we have a shortage of floor TDs. At a previous tournament involving the same child I was the only TD at the tournament because of the unexpected absence of another TD, and I couldn’t be everywhere at once.
Bob, for novice sections, esp, it is extremely difficult for some 4-5 year olds esp, to break away from
the security of talking to mommy and daddy for an hour or so.
Upon several complaints of alleged improper communication between a gentleman speaking the
Chinese language and his child, (We can use additional tds as wel), I simply told the gentlemen that
he could not be in the same playing room as his child. I will note that for whatever reason, either
that the comfort of the child was greatly diminished causing a lack of concentration, or the allegations
were true, or a combination thereof, the child’s level of play decreased significantly.
Parents who behave like this drive me up the wall, for in order to have affordable local events, we
usually cannot afford tds everywhere all the time. We have other tasks to perform as well in the
tournament, ie, pairing, payment collections, membership issues, organizer issues, etc. At such events parents ask me if they can stay. And my answer has been, yes, if you can behave and
not communicate with your child. Nearly all parents are wonderful, I might add. It is the few clueless
that cause the problems.
Rob, my experience also is that most parents are wonderful, its the small handful that cause problems. Another idea is to ask a couple of the parents you trust to become Club TDs. As long as they are going to be at the tourney all day/weekend in any case, perhaps they won’t mind working another room. It has to be people you trust, but it can help solve the problem of nto having enough TDs in a room.
The last is something, ie, signing up club tds that I have been very active in doing. In fact, a common deal is this: If you help us TD, your kids play free. Now I know this sounds cheap, but the truth is this: many of our tournaments
are marginal financially.
Maybe that’s a sign that those kids are not ready for G/30 or slower rated tournament play, and their sections should be played with a time control that fits with how long they can comfortably go without needing to talk.
