03-05-2015, 02:01 PM
I have some sympathy with Jacob's view about the ringing of his phone, as this was held by the arbiters ... in the playing area.
I thought that FIDE rules now required that no phones or other electronic devices be held in the playing area at all. If that is the case (I don't check these things too religiously, so could be wrong), then technically I think it could be argued that the arbiters were at fault (not Jacob, even though he hadn't switched his phone off) by not holding any phones ... outside the playing area.
I've played a couple of games recently in Berlin, where the Bundesliga Nord arbiters made a point of collecting all phones before the matches and storing them (deliberately) outside the playing area in a separate room. I understood that this was being done to comply with the new FIDE rule (i.e. no phones in the playing area at all).
Possibly it might still have been technically correct to forfeit Jacob for his phone going off, as he was, I believe, aware that the phone was in the playing area, and not stored elsewhere, so the arbiters might reasonably argue (even if they were to a degree at fault on storage) that Jacob should nevertheless have made sure that he should have turned his phone off before handing it over to them, a duty for which he, as the player and phone owner, has prior responsibility.
According to Jacob's blog, he wasn't forfeited because of the phone ring but resigned for a range of other reasons. Nevertheless it would be interesting to hear an arbiter's take on the storage of phones and whether we ought to be doing things as in Germany.
I thought that FIDE rules now required that no phones or other electronic devices be held in the playing area at all. If that is the case (I don't check these things too religiously, so could be wrong), then technically I think it could be argued that the arbiters were at fault (not Jacob, even though he hadn't switched his phone off) by not holding any phones ... outside the playing area.
I've played a couple of games recently in Berlin, where the Bundesliga Nord arbiters made a point of collecting all phones before the matches and storing them (deliberately) outside the playing area in a separate room. I understood that this was being done to comply with the new FIDE rule (i.e. no phones in the playing area at all).
Possibly it might still have been technically correct to forfeit Jacob for his phone going off, as he was, I believe, aware that the phone was in the playing area, and not stored elsewhere, so the arbiters might reasonably argue (even if they were to a degree at fault on storage) that Jacob should nevertheless have made sure that he should have turned his phone off before handing it over to them, a duty for which he, as the player and phone owner, has prior responsibility.
According to Jacob's blog, he wasn't forfeited because of the phone ring but resigned for a range of other reasons. Nevertheless it would be interesting to hear an arbiter's take on the storage of phones and whether we ought to be doing things as in Germany.