Is it legal to capture with 2 hands?

in otb chess, can you remove the piece you are capturing with the left hand, and move your piece and press the clock with the other hand?

Yes. But be careful. If you touch a piece of your opponent's it implies the intent to capture, and whichever piece you touch of yours will have to take it. If you pick up a piece of yours and suddenly see that it's awful to take, you can still move it elsewhere.

                    I'll take the Dr's word for it being legal. Some players may get a little testy about it. I move with my right hand because I'm writing with my left.

I think a lot of player do, without penalty, but I believe I read in the USCF rulebook that castling and capturing must be done with the same hand, which must then hit the clock.

I've always been taught that you must use one hand for moves, capture or not, and hit your clock with that same hand.

Ok, thank you for the replies everyone. When I play in the USCF tournaments, especially in blitz, I use two hands all the time, and very few of my opponents say anything.

I am pretty sure it is illegal in Danish chess federation. At least that what my opponents tell me ;-)

it illegal and fair only if also both player do. i not used 2 hands so I alwes disadvantage

An interesting question. If you're a stickler for the rules, you could argue that it's illegal. USCF Rule 16C.1 (Using the clock) states that "Each player must operate the clock with the same hand that moves the pieces."

Also, Rule 7C (Capturing) states, "A piece played to a square occupied by an opponent's piece captures the latter as part of the move..."

Since the capture of the opponent's piece is part of the move, if you use one hand to capture the piece and the other hand to move your piece, you've actually used two hands to move. And since you are only allowed to use one hand to press the clock, one of your hands will be violating Rule 16C.1.

However, I also suspect some TDs might think this is picayunish hair splitting.

You must use only one hand for every move, except for castling.

Yeah, the USCF rules allow two hands for castling. (I'd prefer that they don't, but they do.) That would be the one allowed exception.

Most of the people at the clubs that I have played at would most certainly complain about someone moving the pieces with one hand and hitting the clock with another. I rarely see anyone do it in sanctioned tournaments. I am surprised, Microbear, that no one calls you out on that. I wonder if it is regional, in terms of cultural acceptance.

Moving the pieces with one hand and hitting the clock with the other is clearly illegal. What the OP is asking about is picking up the captured piece with one hand, while moving his piece and hitting the clock with the other hand.

You must complete your move with one hand only.

I was responding to Microbear.

Well excuse me for attempting to clarify. I won't bother you any more.

Thanks, I appreciate that. You are excused.

BTW, I was clarifying for you your misunderstanding of my post. Hope it helped.

What are the FIDE rules on this question? Are they the same as the United States Chess Federation rules?

I sometimes wait until my opponent leaves the board and then exchange some of my pieces against better ones. Mostly they dont See it

For FIDE rules, it does seem clear:

http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=124&view=article

Article 4.1 Each move must be made with one hand only.

If there's such a similarly clear USCF rule (beyond the USCF Rules 7C and 16C.1 that I quoted in Post #9), I couldn't find it.