European Senior Team Championship

[Alastair White]

I have had personal experience of the sort of thing Ian is talking about. There is often far too much noise at these events, and I have had occasion myself to 'shoosh' Russians, Germans, and Spanish (among others) including titled players who should know better but think they can behave as they please. In many cases the arbiters or their assistants on site are unwilling to do very much about it (although I would have to say that the Greek arbiters are very efficient in cracking down on any bad behaviour).

When you get down to the business end of a game, and only have increments to play with, the last thing you want is to be distracted by noise and thoughtless disruption by those who have already finished.