Laws talk for players - Update

JeremyChild

A while ago I asked for suggestions and advice for a talk I was giving to players (not directors) on the laws. I was asked to feedback about how it went, so here it is.

There were 19 attendees from various clubs around the area (including non-EBU affiliates). They'd all paid to be there so there was obviously a desire to learn about these things. I didn't get any of the money, btw!

I'd decided to go through the whole process from arriving at a table to leaving it, looking at the relevant laws for each step. This turned out to be a good choice as the participants found it easy to have something familiar to anchor to.

I opened with a brief discussion on the purpose of the laws ("to allow play to continue"), contrasting it to chess where everything is known and there is no possibility of UI. I also explained what the advantages of knowing aspects of the laws are, and the all important when to call the director (answer: always, except when you shouldn't).

I took questions relating to the current topic as we went, and any other questions at the end.

The talk lasted for nearly two hours, finishing with an ethics quiz, and was followed by about 30 minutes of Q&A.

As I went through the laws I emphasised that while all laws should be followed, some were more important than others. I can already hear some directors raising their hands in horror, but "tell your opponents about MI at the earlisest legal opportunity" is more important than leave the stop card out for 10 seconds" (at least in the sense of the consequences of not doing so are more severe).

There were a lot of questions, which shows that the audience were both interested and engaged. There was also copious amounts of note taking, and many of them thanked me personally at the end.

All in all a very successful outcome to something that initially I was unsure would be of interest to many players.

I may do it again sometime!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the original discussion - it was all very helpful.

SteveMap

[Jeremy] “I'd decided to go through the whole process from arriving at a table to leaving it, looking at the relevant laws for each step. This turned out to be a good choice as the participants found it easy to have something familiar to anchor to.”

Well done, a good approach.
Steve