Rules 15B in the US Chess rulebook states: “If either player has less than five minutes remaining in a non-sudden death time control and does not have additional time (increment) of 30 seconds or more added with each move, both players are excused from the obligation to keep score until the end of the time control period.”
Rule 15C states: “If either player has less than five minutes remaining in a sudden death time control and does not have additional time (increment) of 30 seconds or more added with each move, both players are excused from the obligation to keep score.”
This makes it seem like notating every move only applies to an increment or at least 30 seconds and not delay.
However, in Ken Ballou’s FIDE-US Chess rules document, new.uschess.org/sites/default/f … arison.pdf, it states that under US Chess rules, “If the time control has an increment or delay of at least 30 seconds per move, both players are required to record moves at all times.”
So my question is, under US Chess rules is notating required for every move with a delay of at least 30 seconds?
I’m pretty sure the answer is yes, or it was supposed to be, but somehow the change may not yet have bubbled to the surface.
I think FIDE has also made this change, but please remember that FIDE uses the word “increment” to mean “increment or delay”, i.e. either cumulative or non-cumulative addback.
Adding to the confusion is this. Rule 11D1 defines “time pressure” as “a situation where either player has less than five minutes left in a time control and the time control does not include an increment or delay of 30 seconds or more.” Rules 15B and 15C both have the words “time pressure” in the title of the rule but then only mention increment.
Proposed re-write of rules 15B and 15C and subsequent TD Tips:
In addition to making it clear that notating is required for every move if the time control includes a delay of at least 30 seconds, my rewrite of rules 15B and 15C also does the following:
In rule 15C, I added the words “for the rest of the game” at the end of the first sentence which makes it clear that you don’t have to start notating again in a sudden death time control if one of the players falls below five minutes but then gets back up to 5+ minutes with an increment time control of less than 30 seconds.
In the TD Tips, I got rid of the stupid parts that say “using properly set increment capable clocks” and “Players using improperly set increment clocks” since if the increment is improperly set, the increment should be added for the remainder of the game, as per rule 16P1.
I improved some of the language of the rules and TD Tips.
Members of the rules committee (chair Ken Ballou, Al Losoff Vice-chair)
Bill Goichberg, Steve Immitt, Carol Jarecki, Tim Just, David Kuhns, Bob Messenger, Michael Regan, Ernie Schlich, Kenneth Sloan, Bill Smythe, Myron Thomas.
I’d write it up exactly how you think the motion should appear and lobby one of them to sponsor it. If none of them are willing to, I can’t imagine it would fly. Rules motions almost always get referred to committee anyway, unless they are initiated by the committee.
Actually, for proposed ADMs affecting rules, there’s no need to lobby individual members of the committee. We would actually prefer that anyone with a proposed ADM send it to the committee directly. If the committee finds merit in the proposal, we will work with the proposer to make any needed refinements to the motion and will then place the motion on the agenda as a motion arising from the committee.
The advantage of having the motion submitted by the committee is that there is no need to refer the motion to the committee at the meeting.
(For the parliamentary nerds, the usual procedure is that the motion would be included in the committee’s report. After the body hears the committee report, the body would then act on the motion(s) contained in the report. Since the Delegates dispense with reading committee reports (to save time), the motion would go on the agenda as an ADM instead.)
I was unfortunately imprecise in my writing. When I wrote that a proposed ADM should be sent to the committee, I actually intended to write that a proposed ADM should be sent to the chair (and, optionally, to the vice chair) of the committee. Please kindly do not send proposed changes to all members of the committee individually.