Isn't that something like a football coach suddenly announcing he wasn't going to allow field goals? Really dumb.
Changing the Rules?
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I think you're handling this really well, geekman. I'm the chess club sponsor at the high school I work in, and sometimes the kids know more than I do. I think it's great that you're maintaining a good attitude while improving the state of the game in your area.
May 4, 2010
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#24
geekman wrote:
TheGrobe wrote:
Weird on all accounts. Were the rules made clear before signing up, or was it a surprise sprung on everyone once they arrived at the tournament? I'm assuming the event wasn't sanctioned by any official governing body, correct?
The tournament was done through the School board in my District, so it was not all that big, but i know that about 10 schools came. Also, all of those rules were a complete surprise, neither I, nor the rest of my team knew it would happen.
Sounds like the typical case of "watering down the standards" so common place in our schools. What is deemed too difficult will be skipped, replaced with attendance credits and smiley faces. It is truly scary if even the rules of the chess game are bent just in order to circumvent a few of the more non-intuitive rules of the game. Can you imagine the poor TD in the next tournament where one of those kids participates and hits like a maniac at the clock to claim a win on time?
This TD should be stoned with chess pieces made of concrete.
If I had to try to find a reason behind the no-draw rule, I'd say that perhaps he was trying to prevent collusion between members of the same school. If the members of a school play their best against everyone but draw amongst themselves, they'd be practically guaranteed a good result as a group.
The no-en-passant rule really doesn't make sense. If you're good enough to compete at a tournament, you should be good enough to know what en passant is.
Dietmar wrote:
This TD should be stoned with chess pieces made of concrete.
It's important to remember when doing this that Rooks must be thrown from directly in front of, behind or beside the individual being stoned. Those throwning Bishops must stand somewhat off to the side, but not directly beside the victim. Queens can be thrown from anywhere and I wouldn't even bother to try with Knights.
CrypticC62 wrote:
If I had to try to find a reason behind the no-draw rule, I'd say that perhaps he was trying to prevent collusion between members of the same school. If the members of a school play their best against everyone but draw amongst themselves, they'd be practically guaranteed a good result as a group.
...
I suspect it has more to do with lessening the chance of having to deal with tie-breaks than preventing collusion.
May 4, 2010
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#28
Schachgeek wrote:
Dietmar wrote:
Sounds like the typical case of "watering down the standards" so common place in our schools. What is deemed too difficult will be skipped, replaced with attendance credits and smiley faces.
Sadly, that is the nature of public education in the USA and especially California.
Where else in the world can you find "math performance" tests that are discriminatory because in some cultures 3+4 does not = 7?
I'm trying very hard to figure out what you mean, and I have failed.
geekman wrote:
I recently participated in a tournament where the coordinator said that "The En Passant move cannot be used". I was wondering if this was a common practice in high school tournaments or if this is just weird.
Also, in that same tournament the coordinator said that there would be no draws or stalemates, and if one did occur then the winner would be the one with more time on their clock. This was a real shock to me, I've never heard of rules like these. It was even more controversial because the championship match in the tournament was a draw by insufficient material, however the guy with more time won.
I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this stuff.
That's what you get when you have amateur TD's who want to help others to avoid living through the experiences that traumatized him for life: the first en passant encounter and his first stalemate.
Because we have five fingers on each hand maybe there are some cultures out there that use Quinary as their numeric system in which 3+4=12?
OK, I didn't understand it either, but then I didn't exactly try very hard.
I'm printing this thread out right now so i can give it to my coach who will mail it to the TD. Thanks for all the comments, this will hopefully change the way future turnaments are played here.(btw, this was my final year in high school so i wont be able to experience these new changes )
Congratulations for not dropping out then :)