How CoCo directors go about enforcing rules at tournaments

At CoCo tournaments, we use the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) rule book, which not all players or directors here in North America are familiar with. To help people learn some of the nuances of the WESPA rules, the CoCo provides a resource which summarizes some of the WESPA rules in a neat one-page document:

Highlights of WESPA Rules

Recently, as we were updating this resource, I had the opportunity to review the rules again in detail.

WESPA Rules

I appreciate how comprehensive and carefully written the rules are. That said, they can seem daunting if you try to learn them all. There is certainly a lot of detail in there.

The good news is that you don't need to memorize every single rule in order to play in (or even direct) tournaments. But you should definitely review some of the basics periodically, so you will be prepared whenever a rules question arises.

I recently polled a group of tournament directors to find out what their experience has been implementing and enforcing the rules in real-life situations. The results were informative. Today, I'd like to share a few of my findings.

Which rules question comes up most often in tournaments?

100% of my poll respondents stated that overdraw questions are the most common.

I wish I didn't have to call the director in these situations, personally - it seems like after playing well over 100 tournaments across more than 20 years, I would be able to remember how to handle an overdraw. But I've followed the rule of "when in doubt, call the director" - in the midst of a game, when the flow gets interrupted, I'm often in doubt.

To follow the main rule (3.9.5) you must first determine whether any of the new tiles have touched your rack. Then, the rule varies depending on how many tiles are on your rack and how many were overdrawn. There's a lot of detail to remember.

What are some interesting calls that our directors reported?

While overdraws are common, it's unusual to draw 6 more than you need! In one situation, a player ended up with 13 tiles on their rack.

Clock malfunctions are more common than they should be. In one case, after dealing with a clock problem and then resuming the game with the players' estimated (approximate) clock times set, the players found that a single second of overtime decided the game. One second in the other direction would have given one player the win, but instead the result was a loss. They called the director to see if the time penalty could or should be relaxed in this case. The director decided to uphold the time penalty, since the players had agreed on the reset times. This case really shows the importance of having a good working clock.

In one situation, adjacent games at the same table were started using the same-colored tiles - and players were repeatedly (accidentally) pulling tiles from each other's bags. This is not addressed in the rules specifically, so it's a good example of the director needing to find a creative solution. The director obtained a different set of tiles and reconstructed both boards (quite a lengthy process) so that the games could resume.

Questions have arisen about when a player can call "hold" - see 3.10.5 (calling "hold" when considering a challenge), and 5.1.2 (calling "hold" after a player has played out).

A complaint was issued about a third-party observer interfering in the game: See 4.9 (Scope of Intervention by a Third Party) and 6.4.3 (Observational Etiquette) - the general rule is that a third party must not interfere directly with another game in any way. If violations of procedure are noticed, the observing party can contact the director.

In one survey response, a challenge was incorrectly adjudicated because the challenge computer was set to the wrong lexicon. After the fact, there was nothing the director could do to help. This is a good reminder to be careful about ensuring any devices are set to the current version of the CSW lexicon.

Late-game underdrawing, and other unusual drawing errors, generate quite a few director calls. Rules 3.9.6 through 3.9.12 cover a variety of drawing-related concerns and are well worth reviewing.

On balance, do the directors find the rules easy to enforce, challenging, or somewhere in the middle?

In my poll, about half said "easy" and the rest said "somewhere in the middle." The rules are usually straightforward, but sometimes there are complicated scenarios requiring creative thinking or interpretation.

Summarizing their overall directing philosophy, one director told me: "I apply the fairness mindset of trying to not disadvantage the player who did not make the mistake."

That sounds good to me!