Change in Law Of Chess - starting 1st July 2009 !

I love to play chess. But one thing i don't love about chess is the Laws of Chess. Probably because law is not my favourite subject so i might be biased. However i found that law of chess changed frequently and it confuse players or perhaps...arbiters too. I bet that some qualified arbiters also found it's hard to master the laws of chess. Probably because not all chess player have law background.

Another things is law is not always straightforward. Always there will be a situation when an arbiter needs to interpret. When this happen, a different interpretation might arise. Sometimes it's like to decide which come first - egg or chicken ?

Ok, you all might wonder why i write about laws of chess in this article...actually i would like to mentioned that some of the major changes to the Laws of Chess will come into force on July 1, 2009.

Read an important article from famous arbiter Guert Gijssen at chesscafe.com

For me the changes is quite tricky. I advised all serious player (and arbiter !) read and understand it carefully! However please take note that the changes will only apply starting from July 1, 2009. Below are some interesting changes .


Article 12.3.c was added.

"Smoking is permitted only in the section of the venue designated by the
arbiter"

Ok, i know some of my friends will appreciate this changes !

Another interesting changes was added to Article 12.6:

"It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner
whatsoever. This includes unreasonable claims, unreasonable offers of a
draw or the introduction of a source of noise into the playing area"

According to Geurt Gijssen, this likely applies to MP3 players and IPods, but perhaps even crying babies can be banned from the playing hall with this addition.