TD ruling

How do you settle a dispute where two players (scholastic age) are arguing over the placement of a piece as a TD?

Position was Black pawn on g7 and c2. Black's Rook was on c4.

White's King was on f7 and  White's rook was on h1 when I saw the position.

Both players were arguing over the black king position. The White player was saying the black king was on h7. The Black player was saying the black king was on h6.

Neither player had a scoresheet that led up to that point in the game.

One position led to the black King getting mated.

The other led to a position where black would win with his two extra pawns.

How would you resolve this dispute?

Nobody can't answer as we were not there

What does it means "TD"?

Anyway I try to answer, as they don't note the moves I imagine it was a rapid.

Happened something similar to me, when I arrive the guys continues to moves the piece (was a bishop), one in one square an the other back the the other square.

I explain they can't do it like that, and in my opinion both of them did wrong or illegal move and for this reason probably I will give 0 both. But as I'm reasonable  I ask them to explain me exactly what's happened, I asked really easy question: "who is to move?" or "why move more than once?" so they understand whatever they answer there was always a reason they did something wrong. As they can't find a solution I said the fateful words "Sorry, I have to say..." and I really gave 0 both.

The 2 guys with their parent where not happy but at the end of discussion they tought my one was the right decision and so they not resorted.

TD = Tournament Director

Unless they have an accurate scoresheet, there is no good way to judge the position or determine anything.

As I'm Italian and you american I tought it was "Touch Down".

"Tournament director" now I know I think is obvious, thank you.

Abandon the game and make them record moves next time?

In the absence of notation, if you can't get them to agree on a history of moves that will make it clear which position is correct, calling it a draw would probably be best.

Thank you for your responses

1)  Draw.

2)  Both of them lose.

3)  Reset the game and force them both to notate.

If you make it a draw or both lose or both win or flip a coin half the time you will be wrong.

If you make a guess as too where the piece is you still might be wrong but probably less than half the time.

One thing you can do is separate them and let them recreate it independently and ask them questions. Sometimes you can tell who is lying.

Sometimes kids are dumb and both think they're telling the truth (or one of them is a really good liar). In that case (where they're both believable) I'd tend to side with black because black should win that position and it's worse to make a ruling that upsets the natural conclusion of the game.

But if the scoresheet is pretty close to that point, and black is winning in that position too, then maybe I'd tell them to play from the last recorded position.

I think calling it a draw is unfair.

Fun fact: I called a pawn getting to the back rank a "touchdown" for most of my life (as in, "I moved my pawn forward hoping my little guy could score a touchdown"). It's kind of like the endzone, and you usually go up 7-8 points.

As a tournament director, there is also the need to have the next round ready in a timely fashion. Spending a lot of time quarreling over where a piece was in a game where no one was taking notes, the options are starting them over from the last known legal position (if that can be determined at all) or double forfeiting the game: 0 points for each in that round.

I would ask any witnesses if they saw anything and ask the players to backtrack the moves.

if u guess were it was then you have a 1/64 chance of getting it right, with the chances rising as squares are eliminated but i have a hard time believing you can eliminate all but two squares most of the time and all but one once in a while which is the prerequisite for making it a better than 50% chance