Papers for 2011 Annual Meeting

Page published 8 June 2011. Click here for a pdf version for printing.

Proposed Guidelines for Team Captains

Notes in italics added for information from the Counties Controller

It has been noted that there is an absence of a document to advise captains on what to do should a dispute arise. Ideally, disputes would be resolved on the day, and not end up being brought to a Committee. Specifically, there was an absence of the responsibilities of the captain in an arbiterless situation. The following guidelines are therefore proposed for acceptance to be distributed to captains:

This is not wholly true, there is no formal document, but as part of the information issued to captains at the start of each seasons event,  captains are advised to refer queries/disputes to the controller where they are unable to settle the matter between themselves & are provided with a list of phone numbers of qualified arbiters who can be contacted if the controller is not available during a match. This facility has occasionally been used, but for the most part captains are able to agree how to proceed.

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Any reference to Articles or Appendices mean those in the FIDE Laws of Chess.

Preface to the FIDE Laws of Chess

The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgement and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprive the arbiter of his freedom of judgement and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors.

1. Powers of the Captain

The captain of each team, whose identity will be made clear to the teams beforehand, shall have the power to act as de facto arbiters, except for the following cases:

(a) The captains shall not be empowered to point out any infractions with regard to Article 4 (The Act of Moving the Pieces). That is to say, the captain shall not point out any violations of touch move, or of the making or completion of a move.

(b) The captains shall not be empowered to point out the flag fall either at the end of the first time period, or the end of the quickplay finish. The player must claim a win on time himself, free from outside interference.

(c) Should a situation arise where the time control has been reached, but the number of moves completed it disputed, the captains may assist with the reconstruction of the game to determine whether the time control has been made. If the captain's game is ongoing, he may nominate someone else on his team to carry out this function. A captain should make no effort to communicate the number of moves that have been made to either player if both players have stopped recording. If possible, when both players have stopped recording the moves, someone may oversee the game, recording the unwritten moves from a distance where no player can see what has been written down. When the flag has fallen, the captains may use this in their reconstruction of the game to ensure that the correct number of moves have been made.

(d) If a claim is made under Article 10.2, it is still considered to be made in an arbiterless situation, as per Appendix D. Once the claim has been made by a player, the opposing captain has the right to accept it, and hence note the result as a draw. Should the claim be contested, the scoresheets and time remaining on the clocks shall be noted. This information shall be sent to the Disputes Committee either by post or in electronic form. A claim may not be made after the game has ended; i.e. after the flag has fallen and a player has claimed to that effect.

Please note rule 18 of the MCCU County rules which states that all queries/disputes should go to the controller, with right of appeal to a disputes committee.

(e) A captain may intervene under Article 7 (Irregularities) as he sees fit, except for Article 7.4, which covers illegal moves. Illegal moves must be claimed by the players, but are subject to the same two minute penalty.

Art 7.2 of FIDE Laws. If a game has begun with colours reversed then it shall continue, unless the arbiter rules otherwise.

Example 1: A 5-hour game playing 40 moves in 2 hours plus 30 minutes for completion is found to have started with the wrong colours after 1 hour of play. The game would be restarted, and the game would become 30 moves in 1½ hours plus 30 minutes for completion. That is, deduct 1 move from 40 for every 6 minutes after the start of play has elapsed, and deduct 3 minutes from 120 for each clock.

Example 2: A 4-hour game playing 36 moves in 1½ hours plus 30 minutes for completion is found to have started with the wrong colours after 1 hour of play. The game would be restarted, and the game would become 24 moves in 1 hour plus 30 minutes for completion. That is, deduct 1 move from 36 for every 5 minutes after the start of play has elapsed, and deduct 2½ minutes from each clock.

(g) If a claim is made under Article 9.2 (three-fold repetition) or 9.3 (fifty move rule), the captains may assist with the reconstruction of the game in order to determine whether the claim is successful. If the captain's game is ongoing, he may nominate someone else on his team to carry out this function.

2. Draw Offers

(a) A player may consult his captain if he has been offered a draw. The captain may only offer advice on the position of other games and the current match score. The captain may accept a draw on the player's behalf.

(b) A player may ask his captain whether or not a draw can be offered. The captain may only answer this question with “yes”, “no”, or leave it at the discretion of the player. The captain may not offer a draw on the player's behalf.

3. Disputes Committee

Any violations of the above guidelines should be reported to the Chief Executive, who will then forward them to the Disputes Committee under the procedure outlined in the Constitution.

Please note rule 18 which specifies that any dispute or question goes to the Controller with right of appeal a disputes committee?

Art 13.7 (a) of FIDE laws Spectators and players in other games are not to speak about or otherwise interfere in a game

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Constitutional amendment:

14. Notice of General Meeting shall be posted as least 14 days prior to the date of the meeting by the Chief Executive. Notice of items, rule amendments, constitution changes, should reach the Chief Executive at least 28 days prior to the date of a General Meeting.

To become:

14. Notice of General Meeting shall be posted as least 14 days prior to the date of the meeting by the Chief Executive. Notice of items, rule amendments, team captain guideline amendments, constitution changes, should reach the Chief Executive at least 28 days prior to the date of a General Meeting.

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Proposal: From the MCCU Events Director on Captain's Role

That the appendix at the end of this document be part of the rules of the Counties Championship Competition 

Preamble:

The starting point for the proposed text is the role of the match captain as defined by FIDE

“15.    Team Captain's Role in Team Tournaments
(a) The role of a team captain is basically an administrative one during play. Depending on the regulations of the specific competition, the captain shall be required to deliver, at a specific time, a written list naming the players in his team who will participate in each round, communicate to his players their pairing, sign the protocol indicating the results in the match at the end of the play, etc.
(b) A captain is entitled to advise the players of his team to make or accept an offer of a draw or to resign a game, unless the regulations of the event stipulate otherwise. He must confine himself to give only brief information, based solely on the circumstances pertaining to the match. He may say to a player, “offer a draw, “accept the draw, or “resign the game. For example, if asked by a player whether he should accept an offer of a draw, the captain should answer “yes, “no, or delegate the decision to the player himself.”
I would suggest that the captains role should start from the two paragraphs from the extract from the FIDE Handbook quoted above.

I would propose the following to be the text to be used:

Appendix - Team Captain's Role

1.(a) The role of a team captain is basically an administrative one during play. Depending on the. regulations of the specific competition, the captain shall be required to deliver, at a specific time, a written list naming the players in his team who will participate in each round, communicate to his players their pairing, sign the protocol indicating the results in the match at the end of the play, etc.
  (b) A captain is entitled to advise the players of his team to make or accept an offer of a draw or to resign a game, unless the regulations of the event stipulate otherwise. He must confine himself to give only brief information, based solely on the circumstances pertaining to the match. He may say to a player, “offer a draw, “accept the draw, or “resign the game. For example, if asked by a player whether he should accept an offer of a draw, the captain should answer “yes, “no, or delegate the decision to the player himself.”

2. If a qualified arbiter is present, and willing to do so, then both captains can agree that that person acts as an arbiter for that match.

3 Only a captain, can draw the attention of a player to the fact that an illegal move has been made, and should assist in the recovering of the last legal position.

4.Only a captain has the right to draw the attention of a player to the need to adhere to the requirements of Article 8.

5.Only a  captain, can draw the attention of a player to the fact a flag has fallen.

6.That Clocks are placed so that they are visible to the larger number of players.

7.That the FIDE Handbook's recommendation is followed that clocks are set so that the first time control flag fall is at 6.o'clock.

8.If both players on a board are not writing their moves down because of a time scramble, then someone should be asked to keep score without informing anyone of the number of moves made and only assisting in the reconstruction of the game when a flag has fallen.

9. If there is the possibility of a 10.2 claim, steps should be taken to ensure that a copy of all the moves is made. Once such a claim is made, if it is not immediately agreed, then all discussion must stop and the evidence submitted to the controller who will arrange for a suitably qualified person to make a decision.

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Use of digital clocks with incremental time controls -

Following the 2010 AGM enquiries have been made about this.

The strong recommendation from David Welch ECF Chief Arbiter is that the time control adopted should be straightforward i.e. x number of moves in y minutes with z seconds per move added and no additional time control. This is because it minimises the number of things that could go wrong, especially bearing in mind that there are only a few people around who are experienced in both the use and setting of digital clocks.

The most straightforward combination that comes closest to the existing 5 hour session is 40 moves in 100 minutes with 30 seconds per move added. For the graded sections with a 4 hour session 36 moves in 75 minutes with 30 seconds added is the nearest logical equivalent.

We leave the meeting to decide whether to adopt the above or propose something different. The meeting also needs to address whether where digital clocks are available the existing time controls should be the default, unless both captains agree to use the incremental option.

Cyril & Julie Johnson