it is illegal, next time pause the clock and get a td (tournament director)
Is it illegal?
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In your case it depends . Did he still have to pawn in his hand when he saw that you was about to take it ?
A move is said to be concluded when a player finishes a legal move by taking his hand off the piece played . If he still holds the piece in his hand , the move is not yet concluded , but now he must play (any legal ) move with that piece. He's not allowed to play with any other piece.
So , if he played a different piece and pressed the clock , you can point it out to him or call the director and claim extra time.
His hand was off the pawn for half a second.
Right when I was about to take it, he quickly grabbed it back and made another move.
But he didn't press his clock yet though.
I see pelly13.
Luckily, I didn't really care much. It was my first tournament and it had no effect on my rating. No prizes or fee anyway.
But I was just curious on the rules so it wouldn't happen next time.
BoobsGalore schreef:
His hand was off the pawn for half a second.
Right when I was about to take it, he quickly grabbed it back and made another move.
But he didn't press his clock yet though.
Well you say his hand was off the pawn and the move he played was legal. It's now a concluded move : his pawn is considered to be played.
You say he did another move and that is illegal . I would now start to attrackt the attention of the arbiter , but since he didn't press his clock yet , I would wait for my opponent to press the clock and only then lay it before the judge.
I wouldn't call this uncommon at a tournament. But under tournament rules, if he takes his hand off the piece, he can take it right back if his clock is still ticking provided he must move that piece for that turn. If he puts it back and moves another piece, he has made an illegal move and you should holler for an adjudicator to remove the fool. But if he moves the pawn forward twice and sees you prepare your bishop to take, provided his clock is going he has every right to make it a single move forward.
^ No he doesn't. Touch move applies when the piece is touched. But once the piece is released, no more takebacks, no playing a different move with that piece.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r#Kasparov_touch-move_controversy
So funny. Right after I posted my question, I came across this chess book, read through all 300 pages and came across the same Kasparov vs Polgar match where Kasparov apparently cheated slightly.
It was my first tournament so all I cared about was gaining experience, mostly psychologically handling the pressure, adrenaline, and other factors. Doesn't matter if I won or loss. I'm glad I learned about the touch move rule so next time, it won't happen to me again in a real tournament.
Lesson: Don't be too nice to the person beforehand. Otherwise, he might take advantage of your kindness which was what the guy did lol.
I was at a tournament last week.
My opponent pushed his pawn 2 squares forward and then took it back right when he saw me about to take it with my Bishop.
He didn't press the clock yet though and since I was low in time, I was rushing to make my move as quick after he made it.