If Black is late to the round, White used to have the option, I believe, of moving, or just starting Black’s clock. I believe that this was changed so that White had to start his own clock, move, and start Black’s clock. However, I can’t find the rule which states this. Can someone help me? Thanks.
Alex Relyea
It was changed, and then it was changed back. See westernchess.blogspot.com/2008/01/test.html.
Thanks John. This appears to refer to 15A. What I was looking for was 16J. Has that changed?
Alex Relyea
As it has been pointed out before the changes to the 5th edition are listed at:
Oh, that one. You have the order of events backwards. The 4th edition said that White making his first move on the board was optional. The 5th says it’s required.
Correct. If you are White and Black is not at the board, the only correct procedure is:
a) start your clock
b) make your move on the board
c) start Black’s clock.
What’s interesting to me is that, while I agree with this rule the discussion at the time revealed that
the deciding issue for SOME people was that doing anything else might confuse the clock’s move counter. So…even though that’s a bogus reason, it provides a good way to remember what the rule is. If you do anything other than the procedure above, some clock, somewhere, will be confused.
We like to prevent confusion…even for clocks.