Phonefall

This seems to be the newest way for people to lose a game of chess, by their mobile phone going off in the middle of a game.
It is amazing that no matter how many times you tell people, there are still some who are so obstinate that they cant possibly live without their phone being on.

But now you can bring your friend who stays in the other room and sees if he can find your opponent's number via directory assistance 🙂

Here is a good one - apparently it happened in a local league in the UK ( I'll spare blushes by not naming names lol ). If true, it's a cracker, if it's made up, it's still a good story.

Non-playing team captain is with his team in the playing venue. One of his players hasn't arrived yet. The clocks are started and the captian leaves the venue to make a mobile phone call ( obviously this is fine, he isn't playing ) to the missing player to see where they are. Unfortunately for them, the missing player has entered the venue via another entrance and has taken his place at the board. His phone rings ( it's the team captain calling!!! ) and he has to forfeit.

I played OTB this weekend, and THREE phones went off, and one guy even answered his and was talking into it. It looks like chess in my area is lagging on these rules because there was no sanction whatsoever.