Originally Posted by Just2Good
An interesting article on The Closet Grandmaster appeared recently:
Firstly, I agree with Amiel concerning this. I don't see how this practice is cheating as it offers nothing of value or benefit to your opponent nor to yourself. Its like saying drinking coffee during your game is cheating.
Maybe there is an argument that if your opponent sees you write down a move, he will then turn his mind to lines associated with that move - and then if you play something else his time has been wasted.
However, in regards to this I think that if someone is audacious enough to look at his opponent's score sheet during the game, then if he is lead astray in his thinking as a result it is his own fault.
Clearly an example of a rule that should be scrapped.
I think the rule is actually very sensible. Before this rule came in, some players used to write down alternative moves for their next move and then mentally check through each alternative before deciding on their move. They then crossed out the alternatives on their scoresheet and finally played their move. They were therefore using their scoresheet as an aid to their thinking process.
There was nothing to stop players writing down not just possible moves, but also variations - they could always claim that they were just writing down a possible next move and made a mistake.
I suppose it could be argued that the situation was equal for both players, but it goes against the principle that players should not use an aid to assist their thinking and also resulted in some very messy and often illegible scoresheets.