One hand to move, the other to capture?

[jwiewel]

@Gene_M

…

It is just that soooo much of the chess rule book is really about the clocks.
All things ‘clock’ should have their own section of the rule book, to remove the clutter from every other part of the rule book.

At the risk of drifting off topic, the impact of the clock does seem pervasive and having a section (chapter five) dedicated to the clock is fine. However, I don’t think ALL things clock should be moved to that section. If you do that then you will need either significant repitition or significant cross-referencing of other rules back to that section. For instance, the making of a draw offer doesn’t seem to be a “clock rule” even though it should be timed after moving and before hitting the clock, so putting the rule about when it should be timed seems much more applicable to a section on draw offers than on use of the clock.

Non-tournament players are often surprised at how thick the rulebook is. They are even more surprised when I grab the dozen or so pages on how to actually play the game and then tell them that the rest of the rulebook governs tournament play. I’d rather not make it even thicker by requiring a lot of rules duplication or unnecessary cross-referencing.

[tsawmiller]

I usually push the pawn to the eighth rank, announce the piece I am promoting to, then replace it with that piece. Yes, once I promoted to a rook, just to be different…never had occasion to promote to a bishop or knight.

[artichoke]

@narceleb

@ppwchess

I too have encountered a player who would take the captured piece off first and then pause before putting a piece on the abandoned square. It was rather disconcerting at first. Since he was a newbie I gently pointed out that the correct form to move the capturing piece first, then remove the captured piece.

I teach my students to remove the captured piece first. The reason is a tale of a Korchnoi game. (I’m pretty sure it was Korchnoi, anyway.) All he had to do was exchange rooks, and he would have a theoretically won endgame. He picked up the wrong Bishop to recapture, waved it in the air helplessly for a moment, then just walked out. Had he removed the rook first, picking up the wrong Bishop would not have been an issue.

But if you remove the wrong captureable piece first, you’re equally stuck. And you’re unable to do it one-handed which is really the right way to do it.

Doing it one-handed means the opponent can be sure you are not banging the clock before completing the move.

[GeneM]

@Gene_M

I feel it is bad form to use more than one hand (per turn) to touch pieces and clock. It would not take much creativity to show knotty problem cases arising from such variability.

Today (Wed 2007/05/16) on ChessCafe .com, Geurt Gijssen again writes about this issue. Geurt admits to being overly coy last time.

This time Geurt says only one hand should be used.

[narceleb]

@Gene_M

Today (Wed 2007/05/16) on ChessCafe .com, Geurt Gijssen again writes about this issue. Geurt admits to being overly coy last time.

This time Geurt says only one hand should be used.

That is the FIDE rule, not the USCF rule.

[franc]

Actually, I disagree – I believe this is not just a FIDE rule, it is also a USCF rule.

I think the problem, or confussion, is that some folks are thinking of “capture” as a different action than moving the pieces. Here is why I think the proper way to move, and capture, is using just one hand:

Capturing is covered in section 7C of the Rule Book (page 13), which is a subparagraph, or subsection, of “7. Definition of the move.” Clearly, capturing is part of a move.

Section 9 (page 17) again talks about “the move” – “9. Determination and Completion of the move.” Then on 9B (part of section 9) it talks about capturing…again!

Then, of course, we have, on page 62, “16C1. Using the clock. Each player must operate the clock with the same hand that he moves the pieces.”

Putting those three together, I submit that the moving, and capturing (which is defined under “the move”) must be done with the same hand.

Of course, as we know, many, if not most players do this anyway, so it is not something that requires a lot of skill. I also submit to you that when both players use both hands in the course of the game (against my interpretation of the rules), the game can get somewhat sloppy, for the lack of a better word.