Not necessarily because one could record a pair of moves rather than each “move” and also does not account for the determination and/or completion of the move which needs to be accurate to the second, if not tenth of a second (based from my last weekend’s game).
If someone was fiddling around with one of these electronic devices to record move times, assuming the devices had that capability, it would make the other player suspicious something funny was going on. The device should have as few stylus taps as possible to record moves.
One of the advantages of the use of a paper score sheet is that I can record time used by both players fairly accurately every move. By doing so I know later how much time I spent on critical moments. It also acts as a reminder to speed up or slow down. When certain times are marked, they are an indicator to go to the loo, get something to eat, or just take a walkabout to stretch the legs and my stiff knee. Even during time pressure, I still tend to mark some times.
Um, I don’t think the players type in the move times, during the game. Instead, the device internally records the time of each tap, so that on playback with the appropriate software, the tap times can be viewed.
As the previous poster pointed out, the tap times may not coincide well with the move times, because (among other reasons) the player may have tapped both his opponent’s move and his own move in rapid sequence, both after completing his own move.
Bill Smythe
The way these devices operate limits the tapping or various things to input during a game.
Before the game is when all the header information can be put into the game. Once the game has started, it cannot be changed.
Also, the timing feature is as Bill pointed out. The device keeps track of the times internally with no display of the times used during the games. It is after the game where the times can be viewed.
So, the input or tapping on these devices includes:
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Before the game begins, information such as opponents’ names, tournament name, location, round and section number, who plays what color, ratings and so on is put in. Once this is done and you proceed to the game screen, this cannot be edited. The board with pieces in their starting positions is displayed along with some other basic game information like the moves just put in and other control buttons to be tapped to look at the notation page where the moves are simply listed as they would be on a written scoresheet. There are also controls to take you to the end of game screen(s).
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Once the game begins White’s first move would be entered with 2 taps, one on the piece to be moved and one on the square where it is moved to.
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From then on, the only real need for tapping or input is to enter the next move or draw offers.
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Every once in awhile an error of tapping a piece or square can be made. Then there is a way to take that move back, in the device, and correct it to the correct move. With the Ply Counter this is simply a back arrow to be pressed that takes the move back. Then the correct move can be entered.
Any fiddling with the device, except for an error correction, is unwarranted. When I use my device, it simply sits there on the side of the board where the score sheet normally sits, with the stylus laying next to it on the table. I have a stand setup with mine so I do not need to pick up the device for move entry. Instead I simply hit the center button to awaken the device, tap the piece icon corresponding to the piece moved and then tap the destination square. A quick glance at the device just after this confirms I put in the correct move. And that’s it, no more, no mas, nothing else.
If I would have an opponent picking up the device often and for long periods of time, I would be concerned with him cheating. No one should really be staring at the display even. And if he is doing a lot of tapping, I definitely would bring in the TD for a handling.
By the way, I just plugged my Ply Counter into my laptop to check out this time option. There is a program that is a free download for the laptop to manage the games on the Ply Counter. When a game is selected, there is a choice at the bottom of the short menu on the right hand side of the little game display window in that program that says, “Time” with a box next to it that can be checked or unchecked by clicking on it. When checked, the individual time for each move is displayed in the game score, seen below the display. That whole thing can be saved to the computer, copied to the clipboard and even deleted, apparently from the device.
I had not noticed this Time choice before and thanks to MKOGANOV for pointing it out above. Now, I don’t need to keep a separate time record.
One of the few things I don’t like on eNotate is that the correction procedure is a bit more difficult - and plus I’m a klutz at it. I was in an Evanston tournament recently and made two notational errors - and on one of them flubbed making the correction the first time. (For reference, Evanston tournaments have no prize fund). Of course, as a result, I had a couple of turns where I had excessive clicks - I suddenly noticed my opponent jumping up to look over my shoulder from behind - so I took a second to explain that I was simply a klutz.
Yes, I remember talking with Sevan when he was instituting this error correction procedure into the program. I owned and used the program well before this latest change.
He made it this complicated intentionally. The reason was to prohibit anyone from running variations on the device for analysis purposes. The error corrections are also logged permanently in the game score, so a TD has the ability to review the game score and all the corrections.
It was about the same time that he had the move time notation added to the program.