[Retros] Illegal moves by grandmasters

[A J Mestel]

I don't think I've ever made an illegal move.

I have, however, made hundreds of criminal moves. I deduce crime is not 
against the law.

I think on balance I agree that some FIDE rules should be ignorable by the 
Problems community. Why should studies cease to be sound were FIDE 
suddenly to change the 50-move rule to 40, for example?

I have never for example, seen a problem/study which specified that
"White has touched his rook and an opponents pawn simultaneously, and so 
must either move the rook or capture the pawn (or both.)"

Or "White only has 3 seconds for his next 10 moves. Physically, this 
requires that the distance of the moving piece to the clock (the left-hand 
side of the board) must on average be less than 2 squares per move."

Such problems would count as "fairy problems" to us, but arguably they are 
closer to over-the-board play than your average 2-mover...

    Best wishes, Jonathan