Coronavirus

cdeb wrote: »

The tournament has decided to overrule FIDE regulations on masks - FIDE say they must be worn; Biel says they're advised but at player discretion because of the screens and the larger tables.

Good report/post, but again you are just wrong about the reference to Fide. Wearing masks is NOT a regulation, and Fide do not say they must be worn. They (FIDE) offer GUIDELINES and RECOMMENDATIONS.

For if this was not the case, then they would not be Fide rating the games and tournaments. It is similar to when they brought in the zero tolerance rules about being late for games. It was always discretionary and over time less and less events adopted it. Tournament organizers and players leading the demand for change and practice back to the way it always was. Olympiads being a notable exception.

Fact is, that if you consider all the measures in place and this plastic per-specs in particular, it is obvious that players are perfectly safe and literally being shielded from each other.

A mask, if anything, in this particular context, can only serve to accumulate more germs, and subject to various potential downsides including ill health effects for this wearing a mask for hours each day for 9 days in a row.

As has been mentioned by so many people and so many sources, with little or no scientific evidence conclusively establishing the effectiveness of masks, outside of very narrow circumstances.

The point is not, and never was, that masks don't have a role to play. In very narrow and specific situations and circumstances they most certainly do. They are a tool to combat the virus that has it's place and utility.

The likes of the this Irish ch and the circumstances of it should not require players to be forced to wear a mask. However though we have no way of knowing what the players all think on this specific issue and it is not they who are making the decision about this.

Instead we have the situation in which people are given to understand they have to wear a mask or bugger off and don't play- we wont allow it, that's it! So regardless of any dissenting view as offered here for example (not a solitary one in my view and experience,) just a publicly expressed one, that others will agree with in private, but don't want to rock the boat or make a fuss otherwise.

This simple choice for players, comply or get lost arguably is far from ideal and could so easily be improved upon. It is,or seems to be, a very unfortunate and regressive disappointing way to go. Especially considering that with so many aspects the ICU and the organizers have done really great work for the Irish ch. In part, because players appreciate and understand this very well there will surely be full "compliance" with all the conditions set out.

People will either choose to not bother with the event otherwise, and the vast majority if not all the participants will choose to play under these conditions. A simple enough option available, which has not been mentioned is to allow players themselves agree to not object and leave their opponents the choice not to wear a mask or not as they see fit.

I would be perfectly content to not object to a single player not wearing a mask in any round for the whole event. How would that be a problem for anybody other than my opponent? After all, the masks are supposed to be about protecting the other person and in the circumstances here I feel zero need for such a measure by my opponent.

Of course we can assume that in the case of players like gmac, sodcat (maybe Retd.LoyolaCpt?) and or the anchor guy, they would insist and object to their opponent wearing a mask. which at least is clear enough and we know where we stand with that. So if we concede that and let them have their wish on that, it would still be easy to just ask the rest of the players if they would be willing to not object to their opponents choosing not to wear a mask, just like they won't doing in Biel it seems.

I could be wrong, but I would guess (not going to bet on it) many players would be fine with this. As I have said I would have no objection to my opponent wearing a mask or choosing not to. Hardly think there would not be others with the same idea.

If chess is to be attractive or even viable at all, then regardless of the Irish ch I simply think the wearing off masks will have to be optional or chess will as good as die- and very swiftly- or perhaps I should say, it won't return and will become an even more marginal activity and interest for people.

I would be content to call it a day on chess after this Irish ch, which, as things are now I would be only playing partly out of spite or anger, at least to some extent, and not letting a crude attitude of "wear a mask or bugger off and don't play" prevail.

Before I made a single post on the issue here, I was resigned to simply not bothering with the Irish ch or chess at all and comfortably content never to play another tournament ever again. Especially with the direction chess is going. Others have expressed similar sentiments to me over the past few months.

However there would be a certain satisfaction in now playing regardless of anything and simply laugh in the face of the madness or and meanness associated the issue of mask choice deniers.

If so many of our top players (free pass for minors- who are in a totally different situation) are OK with playing under the conditions (though we have not publicly heard from them- I have privately in a few cases) then that is just the way it is, and they are welcome to carry on in that vein.

Oh, and not that it matters much, as there are so many "arguments" for and against, just like the debate about being a 1 Metrerist or a 2 Metrerist (Currently 2 Metreism is the more dominant and prevailing here in Ireland) there was another of the mask stories today - this time about asthma and the health risks of prolonged mask use.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/health/asthma-sufferers-warned-not-wear-22054249?fbclid=IwAR1y5chYziGlkMqx9st5Turu73k7luTmRs6P0e4huEQc02eStDk2SnearXc

Thinking of options, let us see if Greece makes the "Green List" of countries on Monday. Fresh air mask free on a beautiful Greek island is surely worth consideration to escape the misery in Ireland?