Just the Rules: I Need To Ask This

How is it that so many players have not read the rulebook? It is free online. Most tournament players will find that chapter one is the most useful section. Finding a rule in the online version (by the way: it is also downloadable) is as easy as using your device’s FIND function. 

Hint: start the FIND function at the beginning of the online rules. Why? The Table of Contents is near the top of the document, and it is linked to each rule. The odds are that what you are searching for will pop up first (or near it) in the Table of Contents. Keyboarding your search term and ending it with a period also is neat hack. Also, every “See Also” reference is linked to its source.
 

Onto the questions:

• How do players miss the fact that if their time runs out — a flag fall — their opponent must have mating material to claim a win?
   
• Why do so many tournament pawn-pushers not read a tournament’s posted rules variations before the tournament begins? After the fact it is too late.
   
• How come it is much easier to see the right move when you are a spectator than when you are a competitor? Perhaps a psychiatrist out there can weigh in on that one. 
   
• Armchair TDs are a dime a dozen. Perhaps that should be a new US Chess director certification level?
   
• Why do wood-pushers making claims believe that only their word is enough to prevail? Evidence is also needed to prevail.
   
• Why do hotels find it so hard to understand chess tournament needs?
   
• What rule states that if a chess warrior initiates a forced checkmate variation that it is a win, even if the flag falls before the variation finishes? If time runs out before checkmate can be delivered by an adversary, the game ends with a loss for them when you point out the flag fall.
   
• Players can appeal a TD ruling on the spot. So, why do they wait until much later to make that appeal?
   
• Besides the obvious, why do players with winning positions offer a draw after their flag falls? Do they really expect that side-step maneuver to work? By the way, once the flag falls — and is pointed out — the game is over. Anything after that moment is meaningless to the contest’s results.
   
• Why does the meaning of some chess rules get obscured by their wording?
   
• Why do digital clock manufactures make it so difficult to set their timers?
   
• Why does the aura of cheating far exceed actual cheating?
   
• How can we make announcements before the start of a round more engaging?

Want more? Past columns can be found here or by searching the Chess Life Online archives. 
 

Plus, listen to Tim when he was a guest on the podcasts “One Move at a Time” and “The Chess Angle.”

Tim Just is a National Tournament Director, FIDE National Arbiter, and editor of the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of the US Chess Rulebook. He is also the author of My Opponent is Eating a Doughnut & Just Law, the latter of which is also available from US Chess Sales. Additionally, Tim revised The Guide To Scholastic Chess, a guide created to help teachers and scholastic organizers who wish to begin, improve, or strengthen their school chess program. US Chess awarded the 2022 Tournament Director Lifetime Achievement Award to Tim. He is also a member of the US Chess Rules Committee plus the Tournament Director Certification Committee (TDCC). His new column, exclusive to US Chess, “Just the Rules” will help clarify potentially confusing regulations.