How often do you see "general (all admittance clubs/tournaments) provide clocks for everyone?
How often do you see “scholastic” tournaments provide clocks for all boards?
Asking because I had a father quite irate that my scholastic tournament did not have a clock available for
general purpose tournament use, and further, that I did not advertise that clocks were not available.
Now, perhaps I should have advertised the latter, but how reasonable is it to expect clocks to be provided?
your thoughts, please?
Rob Jones
Due largely to the efforts of our departed (and greatly missed) Sevan Muradian, a large percentage of adult tournaments in the greater Chicago area now furnish boards, sets, and clocks for all players. I think there may be a similar trend in some other geographical areas. Not sure about scholastics.
In some areas it may be getting to the point where organizers who do not furnish clocks might want to consider advertising this fact in pre-event publicity.
A medium-sized scholastic tournament can easily draw 150 players, even in Nebraska.
Let’s assume that a $50 (retail price) digital clock is good enough for these events and that you can negotiate a $40 per unit price for a large quantity purchase. That’s a $3000 investment. A bit rich for my blood.
Players often expect to have sets and boards provided, too, so add in another $10-$15 for that, bringing the total to $3750 - $4125.
That’s a lot to ask from affiliates that are complaining about paying a $40 affiliation fee.
Back in the days when I first started providing sets for tournaments like the Nebraska State Scholastics or the Cornhusker State Games, I expected to lose 1-2 sets at an event with 100 players in it. I don’t know what people who provide clocks experience in losses or breakage.
(I always made sure the TLA said , “Clocks not provided.”)
My favorite tournaments to play in by far are organized by the Continental Chess Association (CCA) which provide absolutely no equipment for players (at least at the Southwest Class Championship anyhow). I’m not saying that this is a conducive way of handling scholastic events as having players tearing down and setting up 4-5 times in a 4-6 hour period might get a bit cumbersome, but in my opinion rated tournament chess players should have their own equipment (board, pieces and clock) and bring them to every tournament. I have had occasion where an organizer (which normally supplies sets) have a larger than expected turnout and I was able to use my own set for the entire tournament since they did not have enough.
Best advice for players might be to bring board, pieces, and clock to every tournament unless they know (through past experience or tournament publicity) what, if any, equipment the specific organizer is likely to furnish.
Yes, that expectation is already becoming obsolete. Better might be:
[b]In a tournament where the organizer furnishes clocks for all players, there should at all times be at least one arbiter available who knows how to set the furnished clocks and make necessary mid-game time adjustments.
In a tournament where the players furnish clocks, each player should bring a clock, know how to set it initially, and know how to make necessary mid-game time adjustments. If, during a game, a mid-game time adjustment becomes necessary, and the player who furnished the clock does not know how to make the adjustment, the arbiter may permit the opponent to substitute another clock and make the necessary adjustment.
[/b]This needs a little work, but the idea fits a bit better than the present single-sentence admonishment.
We provide boards and sets for all the players for events at the Portland Chess Club facility. We provide a few digital clocks which, at least in my view, are mainly intended to be used by new players as I don’t think you can expect all new players who are trying out our club for the first time to buy a digital clock. Over the last few years I’ve stressed that players who aren’t new should be bringing a digital clock with them to our events by stating this in almost all the publicity for our events, usually in bold and sometimes in capital letters too! I think this has helped get a higher percentage of our players to bring a digital clock but there will likely always be those few players who won’t bring a digital clock, even if there life depended on it!