The chess players were a plant, right?
Apparently several of the racers have posted on Twitter and/or reddit that the rules specified that they had to use that leapfrog method, and at least one of them had to be sitting on the bench at all times. They couldn’t just lay the paper on the bench, nor could they just do one portion of the bench and then multiply.
See this reddit thread, in which Burnie and Ashley are posting.
How would you measure the last fractional newspaper amount with any precision? Surely it wouldn’t just happen to be an exact whole number of newspapers between supports.
I assumed so. They stayed way too long when there were some perfectly usable tables a few feet away.
I think the rules said you had to have at least one team member sitting at all times, and multiplication was not allowed.
Well it seems doing so was against the rules, and clear to the racers that was not allowed.
Fractions. 
While the precision wouldn’t be perfect, I feel they should be able to estimate the faction to within 0.1 newspapers. Which is probably why the rules needed to explicitly state they could not do that. If greater precision was needed they could newspaper measure 2 or 3 bench lengths and math from there.
I’m amused by the “no multiplication” rule.
Thou shalt not multiply.
Production could really only keep them from newspapering a bench portion and counting the bench segments. I doubt they could keep track if any multiplication occurred.
I agree. It seems like that would have been a smart move.
“I’m not multiplying, I’m adding” 
What’s weird about that is they’ve gone waaaaay out of their way in earlier seasons to show that they’re not pissing off the locals and are good visitors to the host country. Why would they put in plants to show how intrusive the racers are?
Maybe trying to develop tension into an otherwise boring to watch challenge? I dunno. While the chess players were grumpy yet tolerant, when that one bitch practically sat on the board and toppled pieces, and they had been putting up with that crap from multiple people by then, I can’t imagine one of them not losing their shit without getting paid.
Either that or they know what the Amazing Race is and were amusing themselves for the day. Gotta say, if I stumbled into a roadblock or something, I’d be tempted.
(Episode 5 aired)
Some cool stuff today, lots of heights and awesome views in the Alps. Bit of an interesting ending with all three teams basically being tied on the parasailing challenge. At least it looked like the girl was the one screwing up and stumbling rather than being screwed up by the tandem pilot (which would be akin to bad taxi luck).
I gotta give props to the people who were afraid of heights and cried but did it anyway.
Partly. But the pilots were the ones waiting for the wind to blow the right way and making the decision to go or not. The first time that one of the last three teams started to go down, one of the other pilots said something about “the wind is blowing back” and the team plowed into the snow instead of taking off.
I thought Yetis were supposed to be white. And also in the Himalayas, not the Alps.
That’s what I was wondering too! How the hell were they supposed to see a Yeti when it’s going to be white. Seems they imported the Yeti’s cousin Bigfoot for the challenge.
For those that don’t watch the “coming up” part of the show, TAR doesn’t come back until April 1.
There’s a double metric buttload of college basketball going on the next two or three weeks. March Madness. Og save us…
Now I want to go parasailing in the French Alps. I don’t think I had anything scheduled next weekend, did I?
Brodie/Kurt lost first place, but were good sports about it, and Screechy and Dad made it up to fourth–actually, watching, Dad did pretty well on going out to get the clue, seemed to do it a lot faster than Zach.
Zach and Rachel completely forgot to pick up their mountain guy, had to go back, doesn’t seem to have cost them much though. Burnie and Ashley made a bad call on the tent-building, and that did cost them; it’s their worst finish since the first leg. Best moment was probably Erin and Joslyn going through random people’s bags looking for something lunch-like, totally ignoring the bread in their backpacks (which honestly did feel like a bit of a random add-on) and the side-eye their guide gave the camera.
Still backing Tyler and Korey for one of the final three, Brodie and Kurt for another. Dana behaved herself this episode and Matt got some airtime that wasn’t him being half of an argument; they have actually been pretty consistent, finishing 1, 4, 4, 3 and 3. Much as I like Burnie and Ashley being lower drama, I’m starting to favour Matt and Dana more as the third in the final three.
Blair yelled at another team not to forget their lunch, causing them to go on a wild goose chase. “Have you got lunch? Have you got lunch? Where’s the lunch?” I’m somewhat surprised that they (Blair and daddy, that is) didn’t get penalized for hindering another team.
Even better, that team came in last and got eliminated.
Except I don’t think Blair was trying to hinder the other team – wasn’t she herself confused on loaf of bread = lunch?