Touch-move rule

The touch-move rule in chess specifies that, if a player deliberately touches a piece[1] on the board when it is their turn to move, then they must move or capture that piece if it is legal to do so. If it is the player's piece that was touched, it must be moved if they have a legal move. If the opponent's piece was touched, it must be captured if it can be captured with a legal move. If the touched piece cannot be legally moved or captured, there is no penalty. This is a rule of chess that is enforced in all formal, over-the-board competitions. A player claiming a touch-move violation must do so before touching a piece.[3]

Touching a piece can incur consequences in competitive chess, but typically not in informal play.

A player who wants to adjust a piece on its square without being required to move it can announce the French j’adoube ("I adjust") before touching the piece (Hooper & Whyld 1992:425). While j'adoube is internationally understood, a local language equivalent such as "adjusting" is usually acceptable. A player may not touch the pieces on the board during the opponent's turn.

There is a separate rule that a player who lets go of a piece after making a legal move cannot retract the move.

These rules have the following consequences:

  • Since moving a rook to next to its king is a valid rook move, it cannot be changed to a castling move by moving the king over it. Castling must be done by touching the king first, and the rook afterwards.
  • The player who has released the king after moving it by two squares on their home row hasn't yet completed a move, but they must complete their move by castling on that side, if legal. If that castling move is illegal, another legal king move must be played, if there is one. This may include castling on the other side.

Details

If a player having the move deliberately touches one or more of their pieces, they must move the first one that can be legally moved. So long as the hand has not left the piece on a new square, the piece can be placed on any accessible square. Accidentally touching a piece, e.g. brushing against it while reaching for another piece, and also adjusting a piece, does not count as a deliberate touch.

If a player touches an opposing piece, then they must capture it if the piece can be captured. If a player touches one of their pieces and an opponent's piece, they must make that capture if it is a legal move. Otherwise, they are required to move or capture the first of the pieces that they touched. If it cannot be determined whether the player's piece or the opponent's piece was touched first, it is assumed that the player's piece was touched first. If a player touches more than one piece, the player must move or capture the first piece that can be legally moved or captured.

Castling is a king move, so the king must be touched first. If the rook is touched first instead, a rook move must be made.[4] If the player touches their rook at the same time as touching the king, they must castle with that rook if it is legal to do so. If the player completes a two-square king move without touching a rook, the player must move the correct rook accordingly if castling on that side is legal. Otherwise, the move must be withdrawn and another king move made. If the player touches both pieces in attempting to castle illegally, the king must be moved if possible, but if there is no legal king move, then there is no requirement to move the rook.

When a pawn is moved to its eighth rank, once the player takes their hand off the pawn, a different move of the pawn can no longer be substituted. However, the move is not complete until the promoted piece is released on that square (Just & Burg 2003:20–23).

Examples
Fischer vs. Donner, 1966
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Black just moved 29...Qg5–f5.

In the diagram, from a game between future world champion Bobby Fischer and Jan Hein Donner, White had a probably winning advantage; Black had just moved 29...Qg5–f5 and White fell for a swindle.[5] Fischer touched his bishop, intending to move 30.Bd3, which seems like a natural move, but then realized that Black could play 30...Rxc2, and after 31.Bxf5 Rc1 32.Qxc1 Bxc1, the game would be a draw, because of the opposite-coloured bishops endgame. After touching the bishop, he realized that 30.Bd3 was a bad move, but since he was obligated to move the bishop, and other bishop moves were even worse, after several seconds he played 30.Bd3. The queens and rooks were exchanged (as above) and a draw by agreement was reached after the 34th move. Had Fischer won the game, he would have tied with Boris Spassky for first place in the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup tournament (Kashdan 1968:49–50).

Unzicker vs. Fischer, 1960
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Fischer now touched his h-pawn, compelling him to play 12...h6?? or 12...h5??

The touch-move rule produced an even more disastrous result for Fischer in his game as Black against Wolfgang Unzicker at Buenos Aires 1960.[6] In the position diagrammed, Fischer touched his h-pawn, intending to play 12...h6. He then realized that White could simply play 13.Bxh6, since 13...gxh6 would be illegal due to the pin on the g-file by White's queen. Having touched his h-pawn, the touch-move rule required Fischer to play either 12...h6?? or 12...h5??, an almost equally bad move that fatally weakens Black's kingside. Fischer accordingly played 12...h5?? and resigned just ten moves later—his shortest loss ever in a serious game (Mednis 1997:110–11).

Karpov vs. Chernin, 1992
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Black moved 53...Kd6+, White touched his queen.

In this position in a rapid game between former world champion Anatoly Karpov and Alexander Chernin in Tilburg in 1992,[7] White had just promoted a pawn to a queen on the e8-square. Black made the discovered check 53...Kd6+. Karpov, with very little time remaining, did not see that he was in check and played the illegal move 54.Qe6+. The arbiter required Karpov to play a legal move with his queen instead (since he touched it), and he selected 54.Qe7+?? (54.Qd7+ Rxd7+ 55.Kg6 would still have drawn (Fox & James 1993:198)). After 54...Rxe7+, Karpov lost the game (McDonald 2002:224–25).

Tarrasch vs. Alapin, 1889
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Black touched his king's bishop, mistakenly thinking White had played 5.d2–d4.

In the 1889 game between Siegbert Tarrasch and Semyon Alapin at Breslau,[8] Alapin was expecting 5.d4, the normal move after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 in Petrov's Defence. But by the time he looked at the position he had already touched his king's bishop, intending 5...Be7 in reply to 5.d4, not noticing that White actually played 5.d3 attacking his knight. Now compelled to move the bishop, he would lose the knight without compensation, so resigned immediately (Chernev & Reinfeld 1949:111).

Adjusting pieces

If a player wishes to adjust one or more pieces on their squares without being required to move them, the player can announce j’adoube ([ʒaˈdub], "I adjust"), or words to that effect in other languages. If a player does not announce an adjustment in advance, they may be penalized accordingly. J’adoube is internationally recognised by chess players as announcing the intent to make incidental contact with their pieces.

The phrase is used to give warning from a player to the opponent that the player is about to touch a piece on the board, typically to centralise it on its square, without the intent of making a move with it. Although this French term is customary, it is not obligatory; other similar indications may be used.[9] A player may only adjust the pieces when it is their turn to move[10] and the opponent is present.[11]

Example of misuse

There have been occasions in chess history when a player has uttered j’adoube after making a losing move in order to retract it, thus attempting to avoid the touch-move rule. Such behaviour is regarded as cheating (see cheating in chess). The Yugoslav grandmaster Milan Matulović was nicknamed "J’adoubovic" after such an incident (Hooper & Whyld 1992:185,252) (Lombardy & Daniels 1975:104).

History
Lindemann vs. Echtermeyer, 1893
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White, having made an illegal move, was compelled to play instead 3.Ke2?? here, allowing 3...Qe4#.

The touch-move rule has existed for centuries. In the Middle Ages strict rules were considered necessary because chess was played for stakes. Luis Ramirez de Lucena gave the rule in his 1497 book Arte de Axdres (Sunnucks 1970:462). Benjamin Franklin referred to it in his 1786 essay The morals of chess (Truzzi 1974:14).[12] At one time the rule also required the player who played an illegal move to move their king. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Rule XIII of the London Chess Club provided:

If a player make a false move, i.e., play a Piece or Pawn to any square to which it cannot legally be moved, his adversary has the choice of three penalties; viz., 1st, of compelling him to let the Piece or Pawn remain on the square to which he played it; 2nd, to move correctly to another square; 3rd, to replace the Piece or Pawn and move his King. (Staunton 1848:37) (Marache 1866:24)

While this rule existed, it occasionally led to tragicomedies such as in the 1893 game between Lindermann and Echtermeyer, at Kiel.[13] In that game, after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 White, probably intending the usual 3.Nc3, instead placed his queen's bishop on c3. Since that move was illegal, White was compelled to instead move his king. After the forced 3.Ke2??, Black gave checkmate with 3...Qe4# (Chernev 1974:119).

In England, the 1862 laws of the British Chess Association rejected the above rule. The Association's Law VII provided instead that if a player made an illegal move, "he must, at the choice of the opponent, and according to the case, either move his own man legally, capture the man legally, or move any other man legally moveable." (Gossip & Lipschütz 1902:31) (Steinitz 1889:xxi).[14] The German chess master Siegbert Tarrasch wrote in The Game of Chess (originally published in 1931 as Das Schachspiel) that the former rule requiring a player who made an illegal move to move their king had only been changed a few years earlier (Tarrasch 1938:37).[15]

See also

Notes
  1. In the context of the rules of chess, the term "piece" refers to all six piece types, including pawns.
  2. "FIDE Handbook E. Miscellaneous / 01. Laws of Chess / FIDE Laws of Chess taking effect from 1 January 2018". FIDE. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  3. Article 4.8 in FIDE Laws of Chess[2]
  4. One variation in Article 10.I.2 of the United States Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess allows the Rook to be touched first; therefore if castling on that side is illegal, a move must be made with the touched rook. This variation is announced in advance. FIDE Laws of Chess do not permit this.
  5. "Fischer vs. Donner, Santa Monica 1966". Chessgames.com.
  6. "Unzicker vs. Fischer, Buenos Aires 1960". Chessgames.com.
  7. "Karpov vs. Chernin, Tilburg 1992". Chessgames.com.
  8. "Tarrasch vs. Alapin, Breslau 1889". Chessgames.com.
  9. Article 4.2.1 "for example by saying 'j'adoube' or 'I adjust'" in FIDE Laws of Chess[2]
  10. Article 4.2 "Only the player having the move may adjust one or more pieces on their squares" in FIDE Laws of Chess[2]
  11. "ARBITERS'S MANUAL 2020" (PDF). FIDE Arbiter's Commission. p. 16. Retrieved 12 July 2020. Article 4.2.1 may only be used to correct displaced pieces. If the opponent is not present then an arbiter, if present, should be informed before any adjustment takes place.
  12. Franklin wrote in his essay, first published in the Columbian Magazine in Philadelphia, that one of the "laws of the game" was that "if you touch a piece, you must move it somewhere; if you set it down, you must let it stand."
  13. "Lindemann vs. Echtermeyer, Kiel 1893". Chessgames.com.
  14. Steinitz, unlike Gossip and Lipschütz, did not give a specific date for the Laws of Chess that he set forth, but wrote, "We approve in the main of the Code of Laws of the British Chess Association, which has been adopted in many Chess Congresses." Steinitz, p. xx.
  15. Tarrasch wrote, "If a player makes a move not permitted by the rules of the game or if he touches either an enemy man which cannot be taken or one of his own which cannot be moved then until recently there was a rule that as a penalty he must move his King (but not castle). ... This rule was altered a few years ago—and rightly so." Tarrasch, p. 37.

References


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