Can you play using a glove puppet?

[JustinHorton]

Can you have a glove puppet on your hand when you make your moves, press the clock, write down the move and so on? Has anybody ever done so?

(I had this idle thought when working today, since I quite often have such a puppet on my hand when working.)

[Giulio Simeone]

If that glove puppet doesn't suggest you the moves, why not?

[Roger de Coverly]

Can you have a glove puppet on your hand when you make your moves, press the clock, write down the move and so on?

It might be valid to complain to the arbiter about the distraction. How an arbiter would rule the issue, we won't know unless any care to contribute.

[Krishna Shiatis]

Can you have a glove puppet on your hand when you make your moves, press the clock, write down the move and so on? Has anybody ever done so?

(I had this idle thought when working today, since I quite often have such a puppet on my hand when working.)

Glove puppets do tend to suggest naughty moves (I have found this quite often). My advice would be to ignore them if they made any suggestions anyway unless they have had proper training.

There was a little boy this week-end at the U11 EPSCA zonal in Barnet who was playing with not one but two broken arms (or so I've been told).

Nobody here (in my house) seems to know how he actually managed to play though.

[John Upham]

It might be valid to complain to the arbiter about the distraction. How an arbiter would rule the issue, we won't know unless any care to contribute.

What would be the outcome if the arbiter is also using a puppet along with your opponent?

[Krishna Shiatis]

It might be valid to complain to the arbiter about the distraction. How an arbiter would rule the issue, we won't know unless any care to contribute.

What would be the outcome if the arbiter is also using a puppet along with your opponent?

Is it all a dream?

[Alan Burke]

I would object if it was Matthew Corbett playing the game with Sooty on his hand - everyone would think Sooty was silent, but, as all boys and girls know, Matthew can always hear what Sooty is saying to him !

Oh, yes he can !!!

[Dan O'Dowd]

Arbiters use puppets in chess tournaments all the time. Said puppets are frequently referred to as organisers. Of course, some organisers, in their questionable wisdom, pre-empt this, by hiring muppets as arbiters. Those among us who perform both duties (doesn't matter whether this is simultaneously; a deadly idea is always deadly) perhaps then have the best of both worlds, even though we have nobody onto whom the blame can be shifted for errors.

I can just see the kids at the UKCC now: "Elmo likes to move his horseys! Giddyup horsy!!"

As far as an official arbiting reaction, I can only tell you there was once an adult player who came to a round at a tournament with a teddy bear, decent sized, and sat it on a chair beside his own. Naturally; the opponent mentioned this to the arbiter who then requested the teddy be removed from sight, but could be on the floor for example. Said player refused this request, and promptly walked out of tournament. Just the bear facts on this site.

To that end, I highly doubt any arbiter (unless it was a special christmas or very friendly tournament, held in a pub, at Easter, for example) would allow any sort of glove puppetry to go on. For one thing, a glove puppet sufficiently well designed could conceal a communication device.

[JustinHorton]

You could have it checked though. Nigel Short could remove its hat.

[John Upham]

If both players were to allow puppets to move the pieces, operate the clock and record the moves would this be a case of employing a third party or external assistance?

[Ray Sayers]

Rod Hull's Emu would add spice to a game. Should have featured in the Topalov - Kramnik match

[Geoff Chandler]

Never mind a glove puppet.

What about sitting there with a ventriloquists dummy on your lap.
You could work it with one hand and make all the moves, press
the clock and keep the score with your other had.

A vulture. A ventriloquists dummy of a vulture.
Where can I get one?

Often thought about appearing at the board sporting a genuine looking
false beard & moustache and brightly coloured top.

When the lad goes to the toilet you take off the beard & moustache
and the top and put on a baseball hat.
You would gain oodles of time on the clock as the lad wanders around the
room looking for you.

An eye patch and a glass eye in your pocket is another good one.
Halfway thtough the game pretend to take your false eye out of it's socket,
then 'accidently' roll it towards your opponent so it drops in his lap.
After the fuss has died down set him a two move trap.

An empty shoe box with air holes drilled in the lid and secured by an elastic band.
10 minutes into the game lift the lid just a little and pretend to be feeding
dead flies to 'something' inside the box.
They are bound to ask what it is. (a Chess player's curiousity and all that.)
Tell them it's a tarrantula.

Now when they go to toilet you lift the lid and remove the flies (they have been eaten).
When they come back you pretend to be looking for something under the table.
After they have sat down wait five minutes, stretch out your left leg and very gently
touch their right ankle with your left foot....

[John Foley]

There is a growing zoo of furry things to be placed at the end of one's hand. The consensus seems to be that glove puppets handled correctly are harmless. However, elsewhere on this forum sock puppets have been impugned. Meanwhile any mention of muppets in relation to innocent investors is treated as a public relations disaster.
Could a furrologist please clarify what is acceptable in relation to glove puppets, sock puppets and plain muppets?

[John McKenna]

John Foley >... glove puppets handled correctly are harmless.<
There is at least one exception to that and it's a Mr. Punch glove puppet - far more frightening that Geoff's vulture and more deadly than his tarantula!
(Not being a 'furrologist' I cannot answer John's technical question.)

[John Upham]

Rod Hull's Emu would add spice to a game.

I was under the impression that Emu was killed whilst trying to adjust Rod Hull's television aerial during a Champions League football match between Internazionale and Manchester United. He slipped and fell into his greenhouse.

Rod was calling "Better/worse" at the time as the picture quality was changing.