Just Law Published as Electronic Book and Paperback; Tackles Hundreds of Tournament-Related Questions

Former ICA President and current US Chess Rulebook (6th Edition) Editor Tim Just has written a new book: Just Law. Tim informed the ICA that the title is available as an e-book and paperback on Amazon. It's hoped that a small supply might arrive in time for the Illinois Open Labor Day Weekend.

The book promises to answer the most frequently asked questions of players, tournament directors and organizers in a Q & A format: "notation, draws, byes, clocks, prizes, prize funds, ratings, making claims, playing sites, time controls, pairings, tournament management, tournament creation, scholastic chess mysteries" among other topics.

As a bonus, Tim even provides a helpful list of "successful player habits".

In honor of the Q & A format of the book, Tim was nice enough to respond to some Q & A from the ICA:

ICA Editor: How did Just Law come about?

Just: The material was written as unpublished columns over a year or two. Sevan Muradian and I had the idea that the column would appear once a week on his new web site -- and had he lived that is where it would be appearing right now.

He knew my work habits pretty well; i.e., I get energetic and inspired, then I do a lot of work all at once. Doing stuff week in and out is not my style. Over a long stretch of time I banged out a half a dozen or so columns whenever I got inspired. I was trying to build up about 18 months worth before I passed them along to Sevan for publication.

So, I had all this unpublished material ready when he passed away. The name of the column was going to be "Just Law." I just re-organized the column material into a book format.

ICA Editor: How did Sevan inspire this?

Just: Sevan wanted a US Chess rules and regulations column for his new web page. Each column would address player-TD-organizer and scholastic concerns. He contacted me. We had several lunches to discuss the column format and column title. The format was easy.

After several lunches, and a lot of discussion, we still did not have a title. Then while munching on some appetizer or another (nachos?), Sevan put together the idea of using my name and reputation as a rules-TD-organizer guru for the title -- Just Law.

Sevan always had a way of inspiring me to rise up and do more, but then he had that effect on everyone.

ICA Editor: How does this dovetail with your My Opponent is Eating a Doughnut book you've co-written with Wayne Clark?

Just: The Doughnut book does contain some rules references; however, those rules are only touched upon as part of the story telling. That experience did teach me how to self-publish. That work was inspired by the stories Wayne Clark and I would tell our non-chess friends while sipping coffee. One day we just decided to try and publish those tales. It sounded like it would be a fun project, and so far it has been.

ICA Editor: And for that matter, how does it relate to the US Chess Rulebook?

Just: The "Just Law" book is a collection of the most commonly asked questions from players, TDs, organizers, and the scholastic community that came my way because I am the current (and past) editor of the US Chess Rulebook. That is the connection between the two works.

Not all of the questions that came my way were about the rulebook. TDs wanted to know how to apply the rules, while also learning the basic nuts and bolts of running tournaments more effectively. Organizers wanted to know more about their end of the business -- prize fund creation, finding sites, staffing, etc. And some members of the scholastic community just wanted to find out more about how to get along in that section of the chess universe. Besides the rulebook there are a lot of other regulations and policies that effect tournaments. Just Law addresses those issues as well as the basic rules concerns.

ICA Editor: In your experience are there times when even top-ranked players get confused about US Chess rules?

Just: Yep. A lot of top ranked players are more used to FIDE rules. While FIDE and US Chess rules are a lot alike, there are some differences. So at the non-FIDE rated events it is easy for a top player to stumble over some US Chess rule that they did not even know about. By the way, that also works in reverse; i.e., top ranked (and even lower ranked) US Chess players often stumble over FIDE rules at FIDE rated events.

ICA Editor: Will there always be differences between US Chess and FIDE rules... and is that a problem from your point of view?

Just: Unless US Chess outright adopts the FIDE rules, yes there will always be differences. FIDE rules were originally developed for experienced high level tournament players. The US Chess rules were not.

ICA Editor: Is there no end to your creative endeavors?

Just: It is rare that the word "creative" gets used along with my name. I simply look around and try to make the hoops that the players, TDs, and organizers have to jump through easier to navigate.

That way everybody wins.