This is really just word-smithing of a rule which has been good enough for years. Should the Delegates be indulging in word-smithing of the rulebook, when there is no substantive change and no actual issue or problem? It seems better to let the Rulebook editor do these minor edits when the next edition comes out. Yes the current wording is not perfect and is in theory open to misinterpretation. But unless there has been an outbreak of pawn-move sectarianism lately because of defects in the current wording, why mess with it? Has there been even one incident of someone at a tournament insisting on moving a pawn weirdly because of misinterpretation of the current rule?
So, this seems a little obsessive to me.
If you insist on this wordsmithing, change it to the FIDE wording, which is fine.
Rather than making a distinction between “advance” meaning to move towards the opponent’s side of the board, either along a file or on a diagonal, and “move forward” meaning to advance along a file, I think it would be better to go back to my first choice of title for Rule 8F4: “Pawns move vertically when not capturing but capture diagonally”. This use of the word “vertically” or “vertical” appears elsewhere in the rulebook, e.g. in rules 2D and 8E, so its meaning should be clear. Before revising my proposed ADM, though, I’m going to wait to see what other changes might need to be made to this and other proposed ADMs.
We’re only talking about the title of rule 8F4, so it doesn’t really matter that vertically can mean forward or backward. Rules 8F2 and 8F3 talk about the pawn advancing along a file for a non-capturing move, so there shouldn’t be any ambiguity.
I’ve heard back from David Kuhns, who is the chairman of the Rules Committee. He wrote: “There are many small wording issues throughout the rulebook, and we will add your comments to the list.” I think that’s good enough, since it’s true that we’ve been using essentially the same rules for pawn moves and captures since 1993, when the 4th edition of the rulebook was published, and they haven’t caused any problems. Therefore, I won’t be submitting this ADM.