In 2006 the Delegates instructed the Rules committee to establish rules of on-line play.
The Rules committee determined that the existing rules are adequate for on-line play and developed a set of “Guidelines for Internet Play”. This was done in January of 2007
Presented to the EB on 4 February 2007
These were in the Rules Committee report in the 2007 Delegates Call and a full text of those Guidlines are published within the Call. Approval of the rules committee Report took care of all issues.
main.uschess.org/docs/gov/report … inside.pdf
page 39 has the Rules committee report specifically mentioning approval of on-line play
page 41 has the complete text of the Guidelines
On-Line rated chess is legal and approved.
no further action is necessary.
We may conduct, promote, encourage, and rate such events.
The main idea is that the TDs are responsible for certifying that everything is OK. On the other hand, in OTB play, the opponent is going to help out by complaining about anything he sees wrong.
So online chess requires much more vigilance from the TDs, and they should be warned. Also, rated play (especially regular rated) from home without a TD present shouldn’t just have a warning attached. It should be simply prohibited. How can a TD who signs off on such an event be held to account later on, for any infractions that nobody could have seen? There are no spectators, no teammates, no opponent, no TD … any violation of rules is basically safe from later discovery.
David (artichoke) has some good points. Online chess might want to specifically prohibit the playing TD becaseu the TD has so much more responsibility now in ensuring the integrity of the event. Furthermore, since all one has to currently do to become a club-TD is fill out an online form, any cheater can easily become a TD and host events and the USCF is rather hogtied at proving violations. I might suggest at a MINIMUM requiring a local TD to monitor online events, and that is rather easily done.
Also, it seems to me that the USCF quick-rated events held on the WCL server are now illegal since whatever legislation that approved them should be superceded by these new rules. These rules call for the TD to ensure that the rules are being enforced which is quite impossible. Maybe David (e2e4) can chime in - are these now illegal according to the rules you published?
Artichoke,
The mere existance of these guidelines is the warning.
I disagree about banning play from home. A stern warning is given. I would have no problem rating an invitational tournament between players I know and trust. for example, I could invite the members of the Rules Committee to a Round-Robin tournament and submit the rating report without any misgivings.
An Open event allowing play from home, is at best ill-advised.
A match between two players do not even require a TD at all. As long as both players acknowledge the results, that is still ratable whether on-line or not.
bbentrup
Warnings against playing directors already exist. However, see the note I made about my invitational event.
Requiring a minimum certification? How about a match between two schools where both coaches are club TDs? The coaches will know each other and to a certain extent trust each other.
Perhaps recommending a local TD as a monitor or as a cheif TD of an open event. Keep in mind that it is the duty of a cheif TD to check credentials, know and trust his assistants. This is true in any event. There are a lot of trustworthy club TDs out there that could assist in these events.
A non-trustworthy individual who becomes a club TD may circumvent the rules no matter what. Will on-line play make this any more prevelant?
No, these guidelines are just that. It does not make the quick rated games WCL server “illegal”. Keep in mind that on-line chess has never been banned by the existing laws.