If you as a director were checking the clocks towards the end of the round and noticed that one game had 10 or more minutues on the clock than any other clock, what would you do? More specifically, they must have started their game late.
In my last tournament I had a situation just like this. The game was not using delay and White had 12:30 remaining and Black had 9:30 remaining. After asking each player if the game started late, I was told they did not believe so. However, since the round started 50 minutes earlier in a G/30 event, there would be no other possible explanation, since they were not using delay on the clock, and no time was added during the game for illegal moves.
I told my asst. TD to adjust their clock to fix this so we could get back on schedule, I asked her to take 2 minutes from each clock to not be too harsh. However, she apparently took 5 minutes off each clock, leaving White with 7:30 and Black with 4:30, as she heard me say they were 10 minutes over. Was this too harsh? OR rather does a director have the right to do this? I understand that I did according to 16K1. If one does have the authority to correct the clock, does it matter how much time the players have left. One party claimed that I should never be allowed to put them into time pressure.
What are your thoughts? The rule book seems rather vague in this area, leaving some discretion for the TD. Please Help if you can.
If you insist, my IMHO: The TD should take a walk around the playing site at the START (OK, 10 min.) of the round to avoid this situation: i.e., who is and is not there, clock times (etc…) is important info!
Maybe the clock was defective, with both sides running slower than normal. Or maybe, more likely just one clock wasn’t running correctly, maybe even stopping at times.
If that was the case they could have started on time and the TD is dealing with a defective clock. Does this change what the TD can or cannot do?
My first thought was to adjourn that game, but it would probably take about as long to do that as it would just letting it play out.
I would hesitate interfering with the game. If necessary the next round would start a few minutes late.
Agree with Tim and Wayne. Adjusting the time with so little time remaining is an extremely poor idea. So is adjourning, with so little time remaining. Starting the next round 10 minutes late is by far the least of the available evils.
I don’t know what kind of clock this was. Was it a style where it may have been something as simple as one player hitting the clock and not depressing the button/plunger all the way and then the other player not noticing before he then played 10 minutes later and pressed his button/plunger?
I thought you were going to describe an adjustment early in the round. I would not have made such an adjustment so late in the game. The rules allow an adjustment of the clock, but to do so this late creates a very difficult situation for the players.
I suppose there is one other option, too. Allow the game to continue, but meanwhile, make the next round pairings and start all the other games on time. How to pair the two players still playing? Perhaps both could be paired as wins, unless one is clearly standing better, in which case pair that player as a win and his opponent as a draw. Or, just before you want to start the pairings, you can do a “quasi-Kashdan” – approach the two players (stop the clock for a minute) and let them know that both will be paired as wins, unless one of them proposes a draw within the next 60 seconds, in which case that player will be paired as a draw while his opponent will be paired as a win. (If both players propose a draw, of course the game is over, draw by agreement). Then restart the clock and go off to pairing-land.