Question for tournament players

FIDE rules have to be more serious because more professionals are involved.

USCF rules are more relaxed because they realize that many tournaments are smaller with little or no monetary prizes.  Your bigger tournaments (especially CCA ones) will post their policy in their ads, on their website, and usually all over the doors/walls at the tourney site.  When $$ are involved lots can happen.

If you suspect someone at a tourney of cheating, the best thing is to inform the TD about your suspicions.  A good staff has ways of investigating and handling the situation far better than stalking someone yourself.

See, I've not gone in any national tournament, but I've heard that when some tournament employee is a friend or parent of a player, they may help.

Standing behind your opponent to look from his perspective is the cringies thing I have heard of today.

Normally in clubs and other not so serious events you can have your cellphone with you, however to the serious chess tournaments I have been to you can not have your cellphone with you. 

If you are caught with your cellphone sometimes you lose the game others you get kicked from the tournament.

I have never played an opponent who I ever thought was cheating during the game. I did have one incident recently of an opponent who was doing extremely shady stuff that I thought at the time could have been related to cheating, but I think it was just more to mess with me and given the moves he played and the fact that he didn't win I don't think he did any cheating. 

In most tournaments in America the problem is that there's always a slight possibility, because no one will ever check if you have a phone or electronic device that is turned on unless there is reason to do so. I have never cheated in a tournament game obviously, but after figuring out that no one checks if your phone is off during a game, I for a little while got in the habit of putting my phone on Airplane Mode instead of turning it off completely, so that it's not as much of a pain to start it back up again when the game ends. I shouldn't be able to do this, because on Airplane Mode it could still theoretically run Stockfish or something, but this is what happens when you allow the players to have an electronic device in the playing hall. When players go out of the playing hall with such a device...who knows what could happen? I for one always have some sort of bag or backpack with me at the tournament, and I always keep my phone in there (and keep the bag in the tournament hall) because I like to walk around and sometimes leave the playing hall, and walking around with an electronic device, even if I'm not using it for anything, is obviously very sketchy/suspicious. But of course I'm sure many do it.

Now, if you're in a FIDE event, you're not supposed to have an electronic device at all, period (although I do think if you put it on the table in plain view turned off it's allowed). But in the FIDE events I've played in, I've never seen anyone scanning to make sure this is true, not even when going into or out of the playing hall. So even in a FIDE event you might be able to get away with something. 

I imagine that overseas this is not as much of an issue. In America we seem more relaxed about this; hell, we even let our players listen to music while playing, which could totally be abused by someone willing to go the extra mile to cheat. Not to mention I'm sure many spectators walk into playing halls in American tournaments with phones turned on and not on Airplane mode, and probably some of the better ones are watching the games and possibly, once they get out of the hall, inputting the positions or at least writing about the games. So there's a lot of suspicious stuff that goes on.

In local tournaments this is never a problem because the pool is so small that you can't do anything and reasonably get away with it, and probably if you know all or most of the players you wouldn't want to do that anyway. But I'm talking about chess congresses or opens. This is a bit of an issue I would say. Tournaments should probably take this more seriously.

And yes, I walk around all the time. During an open tournament game (which would usually go for around 3-4 hours, sometimes as long as 6) I always drink an absolutely absurd amount of water (and therefore also have to go to the bathroom periodically), because it is very important to be hydrated and it's good for focus. So the usual pattern when I do decide to get up is I play a move (of course I don't walk around on my turn, that's just ridiculous), I hit the clock, I get up to refill my cup of water, I do so, I bring it back to my table, set it down, and then, if my opponent hasn't moved, I will then walk around for a bit, sometimes looking at other games. So I guess I walk around roughly whenever I run out of water. A bit funny that, especially since I never really thought about that until just now  it sort of happens unthinkingly

I suppose I have occasionally got up to get water on my turn. I can think of a few times I've done that. But then I obviously don't do any other walking around. This usually happens when I have a lot of time on my clock, have a lot of things to consider, and want to drink some water to clear my head before making a decision.

I've had my opponent do that to me a few times. It didn't bother me, and I don't remember thinking that it helped him.

I would sue him for homicide attempt.

You have to do it in a way that seems natural though. When I'm behind my opponent, I like to lean in close and softly say "that looks pretty good, what do you think?" Then I softly put my hands on their shoulders, you know, for a little back rub while they think.

See, not so cringy when you stop to picture it.

does this mean Utk is going to start playing otb tourneys again? 😆😆😆

Urk*

lol you will crush most players with the way you are currently playing your openings...your middlegame is crazy strong which is what matters mostly imo☺

Well of course you give your opponent space. When I stand behind them, it's just like being any spectator - you have to stand behind someone unless the board is at the edge of the table)) 

If they can't feel your breath on the back of the ear you're doing it wrong.

The president's done worse, or at least bragged about doing worse. Surely simply watching them pee couldn't be so bad. You wouldn't even be touching them.