Over the last several months I have received correspondence covering a variety of topics. Here is your chance for you to put on your thinking caps and take a quiz based on the material that I view on my computer monitor.

1. Player X, a 1798 player (BBW), is the odd person dropping down from the 2.5 score group and will be paired against Player Y, a 1902 player (BWB), from the 2 point score group. How do you assign the colors?

A). Player X is paired with the white pieces (X vs. Y).

B). Player X is paired with the black pieces (Y vs. X).

2. It is White’s move and his pawn is on the 7^th rank. While capturing his opponent’s rook on the 8^th rank he removes his pawn from the board and picks up his own queen from the side of the board. Using the same hand that is holding the queen, he forcefully grabs hold of Black's rook by picking it up and placing her majesty, without releasing her from his hand, on the square once occupied by the rook. Upon realizing that promoting to a queen would result in stalemate, he removes both the queen and rook from the board, grabs a bishop and releases it on the square. Black insists that White must capture the rook with the queen. Black stops the clocks and calls you over. How do you rule?

A). White must capture the rook with his pawn and promote it to a queen.

B). White is not allowed to capture the rook when promoting a pawn.

C). White is allowed to capture the rook with his pawn and promote it to a bishop.

3. You are a senior TD and the Chief Director of a 3-sectioned Class B (100 plus total players) event. What experience credit towards ANTD certification can you claim?

A). 3 Class B tournaments.

B). 1 Class B tournament.

C). 6 Class C tournaments.

D). 1 Class A tournament.

4. In the TD Corner "Practical Applications of New Rulebook Procedures" published in the 2003 Annual Rating List it states: "16C2 page 62 says that now players use the same hand for moving pieces and pressing the clock AT ALL TIMES during the game." But on page 62 in the 5^th edition of the rulebook 16C2 is about picking up the clock. What is correct?

A). TD Corner has a typo; i.e., 16C2 should be 16C1.

1. This is an example of a paring that gets treated differently between the new 5^th edition and the old 4^th edition of the rulebook.

The criterion in the new rulebook considers "equalization-alternation-rank" (rule 29E4) as the new ordered criteria for assigning colors. In this case the first criteria, "equalization", does not apply because both players are equally unbalanced; i.e., they both need white to balance their colors for round 4. Applying the second criteria of "alternation" the TD chooses answer B), the pairing Y vs. X (this way both players get to alternate colors).

The old 4^th edition of the rulebook considered "equalization-rank-alternation" as the criteria for assigning colors; i.e., in this case since both players are equally unbalanced the "rank" of Player X (the 2.5 score group) is extremely important. The pairing under that old system would have been X vs. Y, with Player X being assigned white simply because he is from a higher score group (assigning white balances his colors for round 4).

The only time that the TD now considers "rank" is if the color history of both players is exactly the same; i.e., if the color history in this example was BWB for both players (X and Y), then Player X is assigned white according to the new rulebook. Thanks to Terry Winchester for inspiring that pairing question.

2. Rule 9D states, "In the case of the legal promotion of a pawn, the move is determined with no possibility of change when the pawn has been removed from the chessboard and the player's hand has released the new appropriate piece on the promotion square, and completed when the player presses the clock (5H)." Second, rule 10H states, "There is no penalty for touching a piece that is off the board. A player who advances a pawn to the last rank and then touches a piece off the board is not obliged to promote the pawn to the piece touched until that piece has been released on the promotion square." The correct answer is C). Thank you Sean McKinney for inspiring that pawn promotion question.

3. The correct answer is B). Sections of tournaments only count for credit if you are the chief TD, chief floor TD, or chief pairing (backroom) TD of that section only AND that section also meets the criteria defining what category experience the TD is claiming credit for. So in this question if each 85 player section had its own chief TD, or one floor chief and one pairings chief each, the TD(s) could claim full (chief) or partial (floor or backroom/pairings) credit for one Class C event each. Jon Haskel provided the inspiration for that TD certification question

4. A). Thanks to Toshio Imai for catching that typo!

For questions or comments you can e-mail me at: uscfrulebook@yahoo.com.