Sunday, November 21, 2004

Put your pen down ...

... and slowly move away from your scoresheet.

Finally the FIDE rules committee has done the right thing by outlawing the practice of writing your move down before you play it. svidler keeping scoreI never understood how anyone could argue that this didn't constitute note-taking (though many did and I'm sure still will). Here is the new wording of the rule from Guert Gijssen's November 2004 "An Arbiter's Notebook" column on ChessCafe.com:

Article 8.1: In the course of play each player is required to record his own moves and those of his opponents in the correct manner, move after move, as clearly and legibly as possible, in the algebraic notation (Appendix E), on the 'scoresheet' prescribed for the competition. It is forbidden to write the moves in advance.

It is forbidden to write the moves in advance -- music to my ears! It will undoubtedly take time for this rule to work its way down through USCF and to local and club tournaments, but this is clearly heading in the right direction.

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