Illegal moves + Illegal actions

Illegal moves

An "Illegal move" is completed when any of the following occurs:

• A player moves a piece to a square it can’t legally move to

• A player fails to complete promotion properly

• A player starts the opponent’s clock before making a move

• A player moves a single piece with 2 hands. (Moving with one hand and pressing the clock with another hand is not an illegal move)

  Article 7.5.4: If a player uses two hands to make a single move (for example in case of castling, capturing or promotion) and pressed the clock, it shall be considered and penalised as if an illegal move.

The "picture" analogy

A quick way to check if something is an illegal move or an illegal action is to use the "picture" analogy:

Imagine you took a picture of the board before the irregularity occurred, then took a picture of the board after the irregularity occurred. If the new picture is a legal position, then this is not an illegal move.

The "picture" analogy doesn't cover every case, for example castling through check.

Illegal actions

An illegal action is any other irregularity that is not an illegal move. Typically this covers:

• Touch move
• Moving a rook first and then touching a king in order to castle (also classifies as touch move)
• Moving a piece with one hand and pressing the clock with another hand

Illegal actions are not (usually) punishable by the 1 or 2 minute time penalty. Typically these are covered by a warning, except for touch move: the penalty for touch move is "you have to move the piece that you touched first".

Dealing with illegal penalties

In general, you add two minutes to an opponent's clock in standard play, and one minute to an opponent's clock in Rapidplay or Blitz. If the tournament has increments, the increment gained must be reduced

Article 7.5.5: The arbiter’s have to follow the uniformity in reducing the increment (in general 30 seconds) for the player who completed the illegal move by pressing the clock and adding two minutes for his opponent. In Rapid and Blitz also the increment obtained by pressing the clock has to be reduced accordingly