Are face shields better than face masks?
Maybe. See medicinenet.com/script/main … key=230978
They might be more comfortable (and less likely to fog glasses). On the other hand, it looks like they have to fit tightly across the forehead, and I wonder if that might cause headaches if worn for extended periods. I guess we need a volunteer to wear one for 4 hours or so and report back to us. 
We’ve got 2 on order, but I don’t know when they’ll arrive.
Aren’t face shields to protect you (your eyes and nose in particular) rather than others?
Research seems to suggest that face guards may do at least as good a job of preventing droplet spread as face masks and might help prevent droplets from getting inhaled by the wearer, something it’s not clear that ordinary face masks do. N95 masks do, but that’s a different issue.
I know medical people in Nebraska are snapping them up.
Now, it may be that face guards might increase the amount of droplets that get on surfaces if the wearer is sitting at a chess board for several hours.
We might see more people wearing sunglasses and goggles rather than the faceshields medical people are using. A friend suggested, tongue in cheek, that we wear goggles and snorkels when playing chess. She once looked over a large tournament room and called it a “sea of sharks and baitfish.”
This is a link to the health and safety provisions for the rescheduled National Open. It should make for interesting discussion.
Already 127 advance entries. International and East Coast players. Eight feet between rows (six feet between players’ backs). One board per six foot table. Everybody needs to wear a mask. Symptomatic people not allowed in. Boards and pieces sanitized between rounds (the National Open provides them). Other measures.
The start of the school year may make it more attractive to adults that want to reduce the number of kids they play, especially in the four day and three day schedules.
Idea to look at 
Additional distancing (a little) would be obtained by offsetting the boards (odd-numbered North-South rows have boards 1/4 of the way from the north end of the table while even-numbered rows have boards 3/4 of the way from the north end. That way if somebody backs up an extra foot from the table (reducing east-west distance back-to-back distance from six feet to five feet) then then the additional ~three foot north-south distance would still make the actual distance almost six feet).
I might consider playing in such an event if it was permitted to substitute a face shield for a mask. I have worn a mask while shopping for 30-40 minutes at a time and find them very uncomfortable. They interfere with my breathing and fog my glasses. Trying to play chess for four hours while wearing one would just be impossible. A face shield would not have these issues; I’d be willing to try that. I’d be glad to wear a mask outside of playing hours.
– Hal Terrie
The number of advance entries may be somewhat misleading. From their website…
“If you were registered for the National Open in June your entry has been transferred to the new dates. We will set up a form and send emails with instruction for changing your entry or transferring it to next year. Please be patient.” My guess is the number of advance entries is inflated.
I’d be surprised if 8 feet between tables yields 6 feet between player’s backs without offsetting boards as Jeff suggested. Unfortunately, some of us would be more than 12 inches back if we were touching the table. 
Then again, I think the bigger issue is the person that you’re facing directly across the board. I don’t know a good way to increase that distance.
Here’s my understanding of face shields, FWIW…
First of all, if you want something other than my ramblings concerning face shields, take a look at Johns Hopkins: hopkinsmedicine.org/health/ … ed-to-know Their conclusion was the same as my independent one - they may provide some additional protection but aren’t recommended as a mask substitute.
In controlling droplet reception, face shields may be as good if not more capable than surgical masks are at providing reception protection, but professionally we don’t use them by themselves. SARS (also caused by a coronavirus strain) guidelines for medical personnel included using eye protection as well as masks. ( cdc.gov/sars/clinical/respirators.html ) There have been concerns expressed that the eyes might also be a potential route of entry for COVID, however, I am unaware of any definitive scientific conclusions about that. The chief limiter for face shields is that they usually cost significantly more than an equivalent surgical mask, although easier to decontaminate for reuse, and in medicine I’m unaware of any instance where face masks are used that don’t include using a mask as well.
But sure, a face shield is more solid than mask material is, so should provide physical reception protection against droplets. Surgical (non N-95) masks are only rated to be transmission protection. Like a shield, they might work in mitigating reception but if so it is only mitigation and not protection. Only well fit medical-grade N-95 masks (or similar precaution like a respiratory hood) truly protect against reception both aerosolized and droplet while also protecting from transmission.
In COVID another concern isn’t just the droplets but that actions like coughing or sneezing might aerosolize particles and make them airborne, and face shields provide very little if any protection against that. Surgical masks would provide better mitigation.
(5 second aside to say that those who wear surgical masks and then leave their noses exposed - something I’ve seen frequently in public where masks are required - are really doing nothing and might as well not be wearing a mask.)
The other problem with face shields and transmission is that exhaled breath would strike the shield and could potentially then deflect downward. One could shed particles in that direction. A mask, even surgical, would either keep the particulates confined to the area inside the mask or greatly reduce the number passing the material.
I wouldn’t recommend nor run a tournament where someone was only wearing a face shield even though there might be some level of protection from doing so. YMMV.
I’m not sure if this shares correctly or not. But it has a photo of social distancing play.
The link comes up as broken.
I was afraid of that. I think you have to be signed into facebook for it to work. Sorry.
The photo shows players with their own boards in front of them and the clock is between the boards where each player has to reach for it. But it does look reachable. It looks like the photo actually came from some type of tournament.
I can imagine a setup where each player has his own set, likely a small analysis style set and board, on his own table. Moves are communicated by writing the move on a small, erasable board and showing it to the opponent. To avoid distance problems and potential contamination, we may have to dispense with the players using a clock. It would mean that players would have to play on their honor and not be dilatory. As an alternative, the players could have their own clock and press the button for each side. Any dispute over timing, as usual, would be resolved by the TD. Using one of these methods, we could have players distanced 10 or more feet apart. Instead of the long tables we normally use, we could use card tables.
One person suggested to me that we play on picnic tables outside with big umbrellas shading the games. Open air appears to be less conducive for virus spread. The logistics of getting all of those umbrellas and tables together would not be easy but possible. Public parks often have pavilions with picnic tables that are far enough apart. The roofs would protect us from rain. I would not mind playing in a tournament outside while eating hamburgers and potato salad. Have already done that. We would have to adapt to a little noise and some bugs, but we usually have to do that when we are inside in some venues.
What about temperature? I wouldn’t want to play outdoors in Minneapolis in the winter, or in New Orleans in the summer. I wouldn’t even want to play outdoors in my hometown of Madison, WI in either of those seasons. Would outdoor chess be a “Spring and Fall only” sort of thing?
I did something like this with a friend a few weeks ago. We sat on opposite sides of his driveway with magnetic sets on our laps (no tables required) and called out our moves. Of course, that would get noisy at a tournament. But I’m not sure writing the moves on an erasable board is a good solution either. Some people literally can’t write legibly to save their lives. Have you ever seen one of Bobby Fischer’s scoresheets? And I personally know several people with worse handwriting than his. They can’t even read their own scoresheets after a game.
I played in an event where we were outdoors in the summertime using a park pavilion. About 20 players played. We had hot dogs and burgers, potato salad, chip, and a variety of refreshment (non-alcoholic) in a couple of coolers. Was it warm and humid? Yes, typical of a western PA summer. Someone brought some big box fans that were set up on tables. Those cooled us and covered up the ambient noise of kids running around squealing and using water pistol on the grass and trails. Our only real problems were the occasional hornet and dragonfly buzzing the boards and ants walking among the pieces. Not that big of a deal. The burgers were good!
Of course you would not see outdoor winter tournaments. However, I have seen pictures of mountain climbers playing on a small board above the 12,000 foot level and scuba divers playing a game on a magnetic board. Players have played under a lot of unusual environmental conditions. I would not expect to see a tournament played like that. Spring through early fall is fine for an outside event. I have been stuck with playing in awful heat and humidity or freezing conditions when playing in hotels. One of the worst was an event in Florida where a large, Starship Troopers style bug walked across a table eying one of the pieces. Someone hit the bug hard with his shoe. It got up and walked away. In comparison, playing outside in a warm place is easy. You may want to bring a lizard with you, though.
As for the complaints about writing on an erasable board, please. That is pretty weak tea. People will learn to write in block letters or sharpen up their cursive if they have to. Call the TD over.
I think you’re immensely overconfident here. I know many adults who write like 6-year-olds and can’t be bothered to try to improve that. In an age where most communication is done via typing on handheld devices, why would anyone bother to learn old-style manual handwriting? It’s a lost art, and will remain so. And what would calling the TD over accomplish? You can’t force people to exercise a skill that they do not possess.
So, should we pass a rule requiring scoresheets to be done in a Palmerian script?