Another interesting clock setting error

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I saw this several times at All Girls nationals, and happened again in a local scholastic I was running a few weeks ago.

Both tournaments were a 1 control time limit. G/30 in one event and game/45 in the other. At the Girls nationals several of the players got the new version of the Saitek that has true time delay, and had picked a preset that was 30 moves in 25 minutes with 5 second delay, followed by g/30. So they made 30 moves and suddenly had 30 minutes added to each side. In each case I simply reset the clock and subtracted the extra 30 minutes and they continued play from there. I don’t recall that any player was short of time when when they had reached 30 minutes. There had been no complaints from either players or coaches on how I handled it.

2 weeks ago I’m doing the back room at a local scholastic. One of the floor directors came and said he had strange situation that he had not seen before. So I came out and both players said they suddenly each got extra time added. Having dealt with this same situation in Chicago I knew exactly what had occured. The kids told me roughly what their times had been before the reset. Once I determined what the secondary time control had been I simply subtracted the extra time (15 minutes) and had them play from there. The adjusted times pretty much agreed with what the kids felt they had before the reset ay move 30.

In this particular case one player had about 13 minutes left and the other player had a little under 4 minutes after the adjustment. The higher rated player was the one who had the lesser time, and he ended out losing the game. I don’t know if the time factor was the difference between winning and losing.

Later on the kid’s private teacher asked me how he done in the tournament, and I mentioned the incident with the clock. He felt that I was wrong for just doing straight subtraction of the extra 15 minutes. He felt that I needed to give the player with under 4 minutes at least 5 minutes, because psychologically it was hard to adjust from having 19 minutes to now having only 4.

The coach seemed to have been comparing it to a situation where a clock has been put on game that started with no clock, and that a tournament director would never start the clock portion of the game with under 5 minutes.

I had not even considered that a possible option. I don’t recall which player had provided the clock. Perhaps if the opponent had provided the incorrectly set clock maybe a 2 minute add on penalty would have been appropriate. I know the player with the short time owns a Chronos so I’m not sure if it was his or the opponents. But then again following the other thread it seems that it’s both players responsibilty to make sure clock is set properly.

Since this was the 3rd round of a 4 round tournanemt I certainly could not let them continue with the extra time. When I spoke to both kids they both had been aware of the of the time situation before the time had been added for the incorrect 2nd time control. These are not little primary level kids.

They both have ratings in in the 1400-1500 range, and play in tournaments with adults, so I think the one with the signicantly less time recognized that he had time pressure issues. The added time may have been a momentary distraction from that issue, but I don’t think he felt that he was entitle to keeping the time.

2

Yes, both players have some responsability to make sure the clock is set correctly. It would be VERY hard for the other player to determine that the owner had set a secondary time control unless he happened to own the same type of clock and saw the clock being set. Because of this, less of the responsability would go to second player IMO. I’d might assign a penalty for an error of this sort especially if the other player somehow didn’t notice the added time and this caused him to be in time trouble (after the correction).

This would seem to be clearly incorrect. I think your actions were correct.

3

The teacher had a point. See 16O: “A director who decides to subtract time from one or both players shall leave that player(s) with the greaer of either five minutes ot the time control or at least one minute for each move the player still needs to meet the time control.”

4

Obviously, the clause I have put in red does not apply in a sudden-death control.

Leaving at least 5 minutes on each clock would have been possible under this rule, but the TD was also within his rights not to do so, since he was not really subtracting time, just correcting an error.

Bill Smythe

5

Seems clear to me that a player should not be left with less than 5 minutes in a sudden death time control.

6

Like I said in another thread: “No good can come from clocks that are set incorrectly.”

Tim

7

If the times were, say, 13 minutes vs 4 minutes, then the clock suddenly added 30 minutes to both sides, then one player immediately stopped the clocks and summoned the TD, there would be no reason to give the second player 5 minutes instead of 4, as he was not harmed by the malfunction.

If, however, the players played on for a few moves before noticing the problem, then the argument in favor of giving each player at least 5 minutes becomes stronger.

Bill Smythe

8

Very true.

Unfortunately, sometimes a TD is forced to make a ruling, of some kind, even in a situation from which no good can come. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

Bill Smythe

9

The process should be simple enough that they can quickly and reliably make sure. Ah for the good old days when you could just look at the hands, wind the knobs in back and pray that your side didn’t run much faster than the other guy’s …

I’ve played chess only on internet for years so I don’t know much about the newest digital clocks. The earlier digital clocks couldn’t do what I describe below.

Do the new digital clocks have an adequate settings-display mode? It should be both players’ responsibility to check the settings before the game, and the clock should make this easy enough that it’s a simple ritual that everyone learns. Push a special button on the back of the case, examine the data displayed, and if it’s OK push the same button again and start the game.

The most critical data should be displayed all at once in a readable form. Maybe the clock would be less sleek, and it might cost a little more, but that should be the standard for rated play. Or maybe the easiest solution is to put a tiny thermal printer (they are very cheap and small) in the clock and spit out a “settings ticket” on register-receipt paper. This nonsense of trying to figure out how the clock was set, then adjusting in the middle of the game, is a mess that can be avoided. The possibility of it must prey on the minds of the players and distract them.

10

For that, you’ll have to wait for the Smythe Dream Clock.

Bill Smythe

11

I wonder why nobody makes a clock based on a LARGE LCD display? You see them in PDAs that cost well under $100!

Think of the display you could have based on the these things: All the information displayed large enough to read from several feet away, display the time controls and delay settings right on the screen all the time, diplay the time with decent font (not the current segmented display) with numbers that are 1" high or bigger. You’d be able to see your time from across the room!

Some of the current clocks just seem stupid in comparison, using a specialized LCD display that tries to cram the information in. Why aren’t they using these mass produced LCD displays that PDAs use? I’d be tempted to make my own from some used PDAs, but it’s a little more work than it’d be worth for a one-off.

Until somebody starts making clocks this way, the opposing player just has to take the time to ASK how the clock is set and verify that it’s correct.

12

Define ‘large’

13

Amen. The display should be the size of, for example, the face on the USCF Master Quartz analog clock, or larger. It could be 4 inches high by 8 inches wide.

Right again. The main time could be displayed – all five digits – in 1-inch high font, near the top of the display. The delay time and move count could be underneath, slightly smaller. The settings – for all time controls – could be in tiny font, at the bottom.

I would suggest Arial Bold (go into Microsoft Word and try it). Use 72-point font for the main time, 36-point for the delay seconds, 24- for the move count. The delay seconds could go in the outside corners (left side of the left display, right side of the right display), with the move count in the inside corners (right side of the left display, left side of the right display).

There’s no way to do justice to the concept on this bulletin board, but, VERY roughly, it could be something like this (only larger):

. [size=200]1:29:03[/size] . . . . [size=200]1:53:42[/size]
[size=150]5[/size] . . . . . . . . . . [size=150]26[/size] … [size=150]26[/size] . . . . . . . . . . [size=150]4[/size]

(Sorry – I had to use dots to space the thing properly, but in the actual product the dots would be spaces.)

At the very bottom, in tiny type, could be something like:

40 in 2:00:00 delay 0:05 40 in 2:00:00 delay 0:05 SD in 1:00:00 delay 0:05 SD in 1:00:00 delay 0:05
– along with, perhaps, some instructions like “For mid-game time adjustment, press Stop, then Menu”, and maybe also a low-battery indicator.

How’s that for the beginning of a decent concept?

Bill Smythe

14

I like it!