Am I understanding the Rulebook changes correctly that for a game to qualify to be dual rated now it has to be at least G/30 regardless of increment? In other words 25 with a 5 second increment no longer would qualify as G/30 and be dual rateable?
Edit: Or I guess it would be G/30 with a 5 second increment and then using the variant to adjust time to compensate for the increment, following the td tip to arrive at 25 5, and still be dual rated?
[i]
(The below assumes delay/increment of 15 seconds or less.)[/i]
Your edit is correct—for at least the rest of this year. Check the Forum archives.
As things stand now, events advertised as G/30 where the TD announces that delay-digital clocks shall be set for G/25, delay-5, (or increment-5), are Dual-rated—as they have been since Dual rating began.
But: Starting on Jan. 1, 2012, the option to deduct main clock time to compensate for delay/increment shall be abolished, thus a tournament advertised as G/30 shall be played at G/30, delay-5 with digital clocks, or G/30 with analog clocks. Such events will be Dual-rated.
As of next year, any tournament played at G/25 will be Quick-rated only…as things now stand.
But that could change: The Delegates last year (2010) voted to abolish the time-deduction option on the first day of the two-day Delegates Meeting. That change would have taken effect as of the start of this year, (2011). On the second day of last year’s meeting, the Delegates modified their decision and changed the effective date of the rule change to Jan. 1, 2012.
As to why all that happened as it did, I will let those who know more and/or attended the Delegates Meeting explain. Actually, they already have, if you search the archives.
Since last summer, some of the following groups have supposedly worked on ways to allow the five-minute deduction from G/30 (or G/30 through G/34) and still have those games be Dual-rated: the Scholastic Council and the Scholastic, Rules and Ratings committees.
As far as I know there are no ADMs on this issue; at least, none has been posted here. What solutions are under discussion apart from just making G/30 a special exception—as both a ‘border’ case and for the sake of tradition—I do not know.
The Delegates in Orlando will vote to keep games played at G/25, delay-5 (in events advertised as G/30) in the Dual system, I suspect.
Is that simple enough?