Announcing check

For me, it's common curtosey to announce check. I mean, this isn't insulting, even if someone says it in a very bragging way. It's just a game, it doesn't matter a lot. Although it's not polite to say check in a bragging manner, liek showing-off ( I don't/didn't do this, ever, mind you) I still don't care if people do this.

To me, it's polite to announce check. I play with my friend who's rated 1480 and we allways anounce check, even sometimes in a joking/bragging manner where, we're anouncing it to show-off, all the time knwowing that this check was just a last resort before losing the game.

In an OTB Chess I never do it if someone is in very deep thought I don't want to disturb his or her concentration like if I did it every single move it might really annoy my opponent and get an angry reaction or if we were playing in a Chess Tournament the opponent could complain to the arbiter I'm disturbing him or her.

1. The forum description just says "Have something to discuss that doesn't really fit elsewhere? Say it here!". If I'm missing something, my apologies: whatever it is, wherever it is, I've not noticed it.

2. Just to clarify, I never said he was.

When I learned to play chess in the 1950s, we were taught to always announce 'check'. Indeed, I don't think I've ever played a game in North America or Europe where 'check' wasn't announced, although I haven't been in a chess club in eons.

Further, when playing against a considerably weaker player, our chessmaster would announce a queen check using a foreign phrase I was too young to recognize in the spirit of 'garde' below.

Further reference:

In friendly games, the checking player customarily says "check" when making a checking move. Announcing "check" is not required under the rules of chess and it is usually not done in formal games. Until the early 20th century a player was expected to announce "check", and some sources of rules even required it (Hooper & Whyld 1992:74).

Less commonly (and obsolete), the warning garde can be said when a player directly attacks the opponent's queen in a similar way. This was mostly abandoned in the 19th century (Hooper & Whyld 1992:74). The same move can be both check and garde simultaneously. Before the queen acquired its current move (about 1495) the rook was the most powerful piece. At that time the term check-rook was used for a move that checked the king and attacked a rook at the same time (Hooper & Whyld 1992:75).).'

i've always been taught to say check, online there's no need for it tho because it shows up in the box.

fyi - the OP hasn't logged on since Feb of 2009.  i don't think he cares anymore. 

Should you say "checkmate" when you checkmate your opponent, or just stare as it dawns on him?

The OP hasn't been online for three years.

Have you graduated yet?

No.

Oh. Night to all.

I think it is absolutely appropriate, and polite, to say "check" in a friendly game.  My dad taught me to say "guard your queen" as well, and the reason is obvious.  In a friendly game, why would you want to let your opponent make a game-ending blunder?  It would be rude NOT to say check.

IndridCold wrote:

Ziryab wrote: batgirl wrote: "I have gone through a game where I realized that I have been in check for 4 moves and neither of us realized." Has anything similar to this ever happened to anyone personally at a tournament?  I've watched in horror as it happened in a high school tournament (I was the coach of one of the players).   I remember reading about a scholastic tournament (sorry, I don't remember where I read it) where one of the players came and asked the tournament director if he had to checkmate all his opponent's kings. The perplexed TD went over to the board and found that the players had been promoting their pawns to kings.

Ahahahahahahah, this has me rolling!!!

I think that "etiquette" post linked to above is about 20% right.  In a FRIENDLY game, most of it doesn't apply.  In many places, the talk around the board is a part of the social interaction of the game.  Why the eff are you playing in the middle of a coffee shop if you don't want people to watch and comment?  No.  Go play in private if you don't want to be disturbed.  Park benches do not have chess boards inlaid in the tables to enforce a quiet zone around the table.

Say "check."  It's a big part of the fun of the game.  If saying check is a problem, you're not playing a friendly game.

That post is really intended for beginners who want to play serious chess, not etiquette for friendly games.

Only a complete douche would enforce the touch rule in a friendly game.

I do think, however, what makes a game friendly or serious is a very subtle question.  Playing against a hustler in Washington Square Park is deadly serious, and there the touch rule is probably appropriate.  However, nonstop trash talk is also appropriate.

"Friendly" means you're playing for the enjoyment, not to win at all costs.  That means allowing take-backs sometimes (even encouraging them if it's a really gross blunder that ruins the game), saying check, some occasional conversation.

Playing in a tournament over the board is very different than playing some beginner game of chess for the first time ever.

In tournaments, it can often be deemed "rude" to announce check.  It's not only distracting to your opponent, it's distracting to the others in the room.

While it is not "illegal" to say it out loud, your opponent can request that check NOT be announced, and if he consults the TD and requests that check not be announced in his game, and the TD speaks to you about it, and you continue to announce check, you could get a penalty (director's discression).

likesforests wrote:

"The perplexed TD went over to the board and found that the players had been promoting their pawns to kings." That's hillarious... I've seen children and new players remain in check for several moves, but I've never seen anything like that!