In uno dei commenti al regolamento che ho pubblicato su
lawsofchess.com è riportato un commento di Gijssen,
che mi sento di condividere, che afferma che la partita inizia, AI
FINI DELL'ATTRIBUZIONE DEL PUNTEGGIO
OPPURE DEL FORFAIT, quando entrambi i giocatori sono alla scacchiera
(punto di partenza del ragionamento: art. 6.7).
E' irrilevante, per esempio, il fatto che il il giocatore entri in
sala: potrebbe non voler giocare e, anche se io (arbitro)
lo vedo, potrei non conoscerlo, eccetera ... E' dal momento in cui lui
"raggiunge la scacchiera" ("arrives at the chessboard")
che la sua partita ha inizio e, qualunque cosa succeda, sarà
conteggiata ai fini Elo (sempre che, ovviamente, ci sia
anche l'altro giocatore).
Riporto qui sotto il commento di Gijssen.
Ciao,
Maurizio Mascheroni
Quando comincia la partita?
[da un articolo di Geurt Gijssen]
Question: Dear Mr Gijssen, I have two questions, one concerning the
beginning of a game and the other one concerning the threefold
repetition of a position. (1) When does a tournament game of chess
start? To understand the reason for this question, I'd like to give
you some background. In the last round of a recent tournament, the
white clocks were started (either by the arbiter or the player with
the black pieces). The player with the white pieces came, wrote his
name and the opponent's name in the scoresheet and offered a draw.
Black refused and White then said that he (White) would lose then the
game by forfeit so that he could protect his rating. The game was
ruled to be lost by time and not by forfeit because White had appeared
at the board and obviously noted that his time was running. Was this
ruling correct (of course, White was more than unhappy with that
decision)? When does a game of chess start, then? Is it at the point,
when one has filled in the scoresheet or when one has greeted his
opponent or when one has made a move or when the arbiter declares the
start of the game or something else? If the decision would have been
correct, what should White have done to achieve his goal (i.e. to lose
the game by forfeit)? Axel Eisengraeber (Germany)
Answer: What do the regulations say? I started to look in the FIDE
Rating Regulations. There is a small chapter, called "Unplayed games":
Whether these occur because of forfeiture or any other reason, they
are not counted. It means that they are not counted for rating
calculations. Article 6.7 of the Laws of Chess says: The player shall
lose the game if he arrives at the chessboard more than one hour after
the scheduled start of the session unless the rules of the competition
specify or the arbiter decides otherwise.
One thing is immediately clear: if a player does not appear within one
hour after the start of the playing session, he loses the game by
forfeit. After some discussions with other arbiters, I have also
concluded that there is a game at the moment both players have
appeared at the chessboard within one hour after the scheduled start
of the session. It is not relevant whether or not they have made any
moves. A player has the right to think for more than 2 hours for his
first move and would in this case lose his game on time. In my opinion
the decision of the arbiter was correct.