Delay clock question- what should I have done?

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I had advertised the tournament as G25 with 5 second delay; if no delay clock is available, G30. Several players only had analog clocks. They played G/30. So far so good.

As the end of the round approaches, I am watching the end of a game. A high rated player has an advantage, but is in severe time trouble. I look up and see 30 seconds on the digital clock. They’re blitzing. I figure with the 5 second delay, he’s going to pull out the game, barely. I look up two moves later, and the higher rated player has 14 seconds. The other player moves, and I see the clock go immediately to 13 seconds. Two moves later, the high rated player’s clock expires. He notices it and congratulates his opponent on a victory.

Now, here’s where I get uncertain. First, the bottom line is that the high rated guy lost, if for no other reason than that he shook hands and agreed he had lost, with no TD intervention.

But…on seing that the clock was improperly set, with 14 seconds to go, should I have substituted a delay clock? I had one available.

And, if the high rated fellow had been less gracious, and claimed an improper result on the grounds that the clock was set wrong, what would the ruling be?

I believe that the answer is that the player can demand a delay clock, but can’t do so retroactively. Having accepted the clock and played with it, he can’t challenge the result of the game.

So, again, two questions?

Should I have stopped the game and substituted a clock?
Could the losing player have challenged the result if he had not accepted it?

2

With regard to your second question, the time for claims is during the game, not after the game completes. It is too late for the opponent to complain about an incorrectly set clock or to complain about the result once the game ends.

With regard to your first question, my inclination is not to intervene and replace the clock, although I admit I can not find the wording in the rule book that compels that decision.

3

Would/should it make a difference whose clock it was?

4

Answer 1: No. The only way you replace the analog clock in that situation is if the higher rated player had made an insufficient losing chances claim that you did not feel could clearly be resolved one way or the other. See USCF Rule 14H2a.

Answer 2: Not successfully. The player has no grounds to challenge the result on the basis of an improperly set clock after the game is over. Both players are ultimately responsible for checking things like clock settings, initial piece setup, and initial board orientation.

Answer 3: No. See Answer 2 above.

I believe one of the things a TD should do - especially at a smaller tournament - is walk around for a few minutes early in a round and make sure every clock is correctly set. This includes making sure that each digital clock has a delay or increment set to the tournament control. That helps to avoid such a situation.

However, I certainly acknowledge that this is not always be possible - and the larger the event, the less likely this is to be possible.

5

Not all clocks have a display which readily shows that they are set correctly, nor will most TDs know every clock in use.

If a TD has to stand at each board for at least one move (possibly one move pair) to make sure that the delay/increment setting is correct, that’s going to take a fair amount of time in all but the smallest of events. (And that doesn’t even get into the mechanics or politics of whether the secondary time controls are set properly, though multiple time control events may be an endangered species.)

Isn’t it still the clock owner’s responsibility to know how to set it and to show his opponent that it is set properly upon request? If so, then in the original question it may make a difference whose clock it was.

6

You do not need to know the specifics of how to set a digital clock to be able to observe whether the clock has a delay/increment that is in use. And most digital clocks nowadays do clearly show whether there is a delay in use. Even one that doesn’t, however - like my original Chronos - is not difficult to see.

Also, you need to look for more than just the delay/increment setting. The most common current error is deducting five minutes from the first (or only) time control to compensate for the delay, which is no longer the rule in USCF events. Another common error (with clocks like the Excalibur, for example) is people not recognizing that the display shows mmm, not h:mm (so a G/60 event on an Excalibur might be inadvertently set for 100 minutes). Even analogs, believe it or not, are sometimes set incorrectly.

Of course, it takes some time. But if it is a smaller event (less than 50 players, IMO), it won’t take very long. Besides, that’s one of the reasons a director is there in the first place - to ensure that the rules are followed. This is one of the things that I often do at larger events. It can save a lot of headaches and bad feelings after the game if a player realizes the clock was set incorrectly.

The second time control is typically never an issue. If it comes up, it is still a player responsibility item, though.

It won’t make a difference if the player lodges the complaint after the game, which was the condition specified in the original question. Again, however, avoiding that headache is an excellent reason why checking clock settings at the start of the round is a good idea. Good directing practices include doing proactive things to avoid disputes, too.

7

Not necessarily. With some clocks it is almost impossible to tell whether they are set properly – even if you wait until one of the players presses his clock and observe the next few seconds.

The worst culprits are clocks which use Bronstein mode and which do not switch from h:mm mode to mm:ss mode until late in the game. DGT clocks, for example, do not show running seconds until under 20 minutes (although DGT at least has a tiny part of the display telling you what mode it’s in). Older Saiteks are the worst – they stay in h:mm mode until the 5-minute mark.

Related to this (I believe) is my observation that the players most likely to sneakily keep the delay off are the owners of the older Saiteks.

When we had the club on Lunt Avenue I used to post the following. (If I were to do the same today, it’d probably need a few revisions.)

[size=200]DIRTY POOL [/size]

It is DIRTY POOL to furnish a delay-capable clock without the delay set. Such a setting can confuse the opponent into believing there is a delay when there is none, resulting in unnecessary and acrimonious time-forfeit disputes.

If you furnish and use a delay-capable clock without the delay set, any or all of the following may happen to you:

  1. The TD reserves the right, at any time during the game, to point out to your opponent that the delay is not set.

  2. The TD reserves the right to allow your opponent, at any time during the game, to substitute any clock, delay-capable or otherwise, furnished by him.

  3. If you claim a draw on the grounds of insufficient losing chances, the TD may summarily dismiss your claim and subtract time from your clock. If, however, your opponent makes such a claim, he will receive the usual kind, gentle treatment.

  4. If you claim a win by time forfeit, the TD may dismiss your claim and give your opponent 5 minutes, plus delay time, to finish the game or reach the time control. No such consideration, however, will be given to you, should your opponent claim a win by time forfeit.

I never had to impose the more draconian portions of the above (nor, perhaps, could I legally have done so). The threat was worse than the execution.

One regular at the Lunt Avenue club never turned on Bronstein mode on his older Saitek. I would make it a point to notify each of his opponents, before the game, that the delay was not on, and that he (the opponent) therefore had the right to use his own clock.

Bill Smythe

8

There aren’t too many of the old gray-body, silver-button Saiteks around anymore. Even on those, though, I just watch for a minute or two, though I usually have to wait until late opening or early middlegame. I always wear a watch with a second hand; I now use the stopwatch app on my smartphone. My son has a newer blue Saitek Competition, on which I can easily pick out delay/increment settings.

I have DGT XL and NA clocks; both of those show “delay” on the clock, as you pointed out.

I only make threats I know I can enforce. :slight_smile: This is probably because most of my directing these days is in bigger tournaments.

I keep a list of CCA regulars who I have seen with this issue. (It is a small list.) When I see them entered in a tournament I work, I just pick up their clocks before each round and (if necessary) turn on the delay/increment. :laughing:

9

If the higher-rated player claimed he had thought the clock was set to use a delay, then you are correct that this claim would be irrelevant if the clock were his, while it would be relevant if they were playing with his opponent’s clock and his opponent had told him that the delay was set (since his opponent would be in violation of Rule 16Bb). But the higher-rated player should have figured this out before his flag fell and should have made the claim when he noticed this. It’s really hard to imagine a player under time pressure not noticing that he wasn’t getting the benefit of any delay time on his moves.

Bob

10

Last year I had a similar but even less obvious situation happen to me in a tournament game played at G/90+inc30.

My Chronos clock was set properly and I noted it was working correctly on the first few starting moves, so naturally I assumed it was fine. However, I didn’t realize that the batteries were way too low. At a crucial point as we were entering time pressure around move 35-40 my opponent suddenly pointed out that the clock wasn’t adding our increment times anymore. (I had always thought that when the batteries went out the clock would simply shut off, but this one instead started to malfunction and not add the increment.) Apparently it had been happening for a long time, and I should have had perhaps as much as 10 more minutes showing on my clock in this crucial time pressure. We paused the clock and were told to replace it with another set for the time still showing on the Chronos, and essentially the increment time was lost to me. It was rather crucial in the ultimate outcome as the missing time really hurt.

So it is easy to say I shouldn’t play with a defective clock, but what if it was my opponent’s clock that we were using, or one supplied by the T.D.? Is the player required to observe and verify the working of the clock at every move constantly throughout the game? Doesn’t common sense say the T.D. should give both players an arbitrary time extension as a remedy in rare cases like this?

11

Oh, I don’t know. I suppose if it could be established beyond a reasonable doubt that 20 minutes were missing (such as by comparing your clock times with those on other boards, and being sure that those other boards started on time) then the TD could have done something like that – and split the 20 minutes equally between the two clock faces – but I would hardly call it universally mandatory.

One problem with that suggestion: What clock would you use? Would you continue to use your own, despite the possibility of an even greater malfunction later in the game, as the batteries wear further down? Or could you find another clock that you would know how to set? Would you know how to do a mid-game time adjustment on the replacement clock? Because of all these kinds of questions, the TD might reasonably decide (as Baba Looey would say) to jus’ forget the whole thin’.

My old-model Chronos (with the switch on the bottom) has a battery-check mode. Just turn it on in this mode, and the displays will show “HI” or “LO”. If it shows “LO”, you can still use it for several hours. It’s too bad they removed this feature in the later models.

Bill Smythe

12

If I ever award a time extension, it certainly isn’t “arbitrary”. My instinctive reaction here is to not award any time - unless I or the organizer had provided the clock. However, there are cases where I would give additional time.

If I were to adjust the times, I would try to recreate, based on the clock times, starting time of the round, and number of moves made, approximately how much increment time was lost to the malfunction, and add it back on the replacement clock.

The complication in making any adjustment, though, is that you can’t be OVERLY generous. Also, I would try to determine other factors that could affect the reset. (One example: did the game start on time - and, if not, how late did it start, and were the clocks properly adjusted for the late start?)

13

No. Often, when we want something, it is easy to claim “common sense” as a reason. However, I would ask the following: How do you know you should have had at least ten more minutes on your clock? Does that mean you were aware of the defect for the previous twenty moves? If so, then you needed to make a claim as soon as you were aware of the defect. If not, how did you arrive at ten minutes?

In the absence of any information suggesting how many moves were affected, the TD acted correctly by replacing the defective clock with one showing the times for each player at the point of replacement.

It is unfortunate that the Chronos (a fairly expensive clock, and supposed to be “high end”) does not have a low battery indicator. I am not surprised that the clock malfunctioned instead of shutting itself off. CPUs running off batteries can behave in very strange ways when input voltage is just at “the hairy edge.” However, I would also have expected that the LCD digits would have started to fade before the batteries got that low.

14

I don’t think LCDs always work that way. They’re either there or they’re not. On my Chronos, which is old enough that it does have a low-battery indicator, the indicator says “LO” long before anything happens to the time display.

Bill Smythe

15

In an increment (or zero delay) time control, it should be possible to determine what the total time used, including added back time, should be, ASSUMING the clock is mis-behaving identically for both players, which may not be the case.

A delay time control is less deterministic, though if the delay time is short (eg, 5 seconds) you can probably make a reasonable guess. If both players used all their delay time on every move, then include 1 additional minute per player for every 12 moves.

But that still assumes that the clock is doing the same thing for both players.

16

My Chronos (from the mid-90s, I’m not sure what model) doesn’t have a low-battery indicator, but the LCD does fade before the battery power is gone.

17

I thought that there was a button combination at turn-on that would provide battery hi/lo indication.

18

None that the instruction manual describes. If I remember correctly (since I don’t have the manual with me at the moment), the instructions actually say that the LCD digits fading is a sign that the batteries need to be replaced.

19

That was on the older model (the one I have). I bought mine around 1994. It was the last model with a switch on the bottom.

Bill Smythe

20

Very high tech :stuck_out_tongue: