New Normal tournaments

[ChessSpawn]

@bruce_leverett

@Slivovitz

With that clever two board and remote clock setup, what time control do they use to compensate for the extra time you would need to make your opponent’s moves on your own board? It would have to be an extra long delay, I should think. And how do they handle it if you do it incorrectly? I hate to imagine what a time scramble would be like.

Two-board setups have been used for decades for games involving blind players. Indeed, it takes longer to make a move. But what do you mean by “compensate”? You just have less time, that’s all.

Time scrambles are not pretty, and they aren’t pretty with one-board setups either. Generally speaking, time controls are nothing more than a necessary evil.

Of course, a time scramble is still better than sitting there ten or twelve hours waiting for your opponent to make their move only to discover that they’ve died of a heart attack.

[Drantos]

Magnus Carlsen’s web site says the first OTB super-tournament since the lockdown began will be the annual Norway Chess event, now skedded to start October 5.
Caruana is invited and apparently has accepted. But Wesley So cannot because of European restrictions barring, among others Americans.
Caruana can travel to Norway because he has dual citizenship.

[ChessSpawn]

@Drantos

Magnus Carlsen’s web site says the first OTB super-tournament since the lockdown began will be the annual Norway Chess event, now skedded to start October 5.
Caruana is invited and apparently has accepted. But Wesley So cannot because of European restrictions barring, among others Americans.
Caruana can travel to Norway because he has dual citizenship.

I would have thought the travel restriction would relate to the country traveled from. Anyway, this will be very interesting to observe from a pandemic standpoint. IMO, foolhardy.

[wintdoan]

@ChessSpawn

@Drantos

Magnus Carlsen’s web site says the first OTB super-tournament since the lockdown began will be the annual Norway Chess event, now skedded to start October 5.
Caruana is invited and apparently has accepted. But Wesley So cannot because of European restrictions barring, among others Americans.
Caruana can travel to Norway because he has dual citizenship.

I would have thought the travel restriction would relate to the country traveled from.

At this point, it appears that it’s citizenship that controls, at least going into the EU (extended)—I guess too many people got stuck on the wrong side of the border when it was originating country.

[ChessSpawn]

@wintdoan

@ChessSpawn

@Drantos

Magnus Carlsen’s web site says the first OTB super-tournament since the lockdown began will be the annual Norway Chess event, now skedded to start October 5.
Caruana is invited and apparently has accepted. But Wesley So cannot because of European restrictions barring, among others Americans.
Caruana can travel to Norway because he has dual citizenship.

I would have thought the travel restriction would relate to the country traveled from.

At this point, it appears that it’s citizenship that controls, at least going into the EU (extended)—I guess too many people got stuck on the wrong side of the border when it was originating country.

I’m told that the UK is also considering the state in the US that one has been residing in as well. A friend’s daughter is leaving for Edinburgh next week to begin studies at the veterinary college there. She just graduated from UVM and resides in Maine with her parents. Had she been coming from Texas, Florida, Arizona, etc., the school told her she would have had much more difficulty obtaining her visa.

[Slivovitz]

@bruce_leverett

@Slivovitz

With that clever two board and remote clock setup, what time control do they use to compensate for the extra time you would need to make your opponent’s moves on your own board? It would have to be an extra long delay, I should think. And how do they handle it if you do it incorrectly? I hate to imagine what a time scramble would be like.

Two-board setups have been used for decades for games involving blind players. Indeed, it takes longer to make a move. But what do you mean by “compensate”? You just have less time, that’s all.

Time scrambles are not pretty, and they aren’t pretty with one-board setups either. Generally speaking, time controls are nothing more than a necessary evil.

With two board setups for blind players, the blind player can have an assistant to make moves on the main board. The opponent of the blind player is not tasked with making both players moves on his own time.

I’m not criticizing the way this tournament was played (better than not playing at all) but simply noting practical problems. With the two board setup in the photo, after a player makes a move, he could wait for his opponent to duplicate it on the other board before punching the clock (unlikely), or the extra time to make that move comes off his opponent’s clock. An obvious way to handle this would be to have an extra long delay (probably Bronstein delay in Europe) or increment. But ChessSpawn already answered the question about the time control.

As for a time scramble getting ugly, I thought my point was clear, but perhaps it wasn’t. If the players are short of time, there is an increased possibility of the positions on the two boards getting out of synch.

This pandemic has forced uncomfortable expedients on us in many areas of life, not just chess. The details are often interesting to observe and discuss.

I will be playing in an online tournament, by the way. There is to be an event on Chess.com on August 29th to raise money for the USCF, which seems like a good idea. 15-2 time control, which I don’t consider serious chess, but what the heck.

[bruce_leverett]

@Slivovitz

@bruce_leverett

@Slivovitz

With that clever two board and remote clock setup, what time control do they use to compensate for the extra time you would need to make your opponent’s moves on your own board? It would have to be an extra long delay, I should think. And how do they handle it if you do it incorrectly? I hate to imagine what a time scramble would be like.

Two-board setups have been used for decades for games involving blind players. Indeed, it takes longer to make a move. But what do you mean by “compensate”? You just have less time, that’s all.

Time scrambles are not pretty, and they aren’t pretty with one-board setups either. Generally speaking, time controls are nothing more than a necessary evil.

With two board setups for blind players, the blind player can have an assistant to make moves on the main board. The opponent of the blind player is not tasked with making both players moves on his own time.

I’m not criticizing the way this tournament was played (better than not playing at all) but simply noting practical problems. With the two board setup in the photo, after a player makes a move, he could wait for his opponent to duplicate it on the other board before punching the clock (unlikely), or the extra time to make that move comes off his opponent’s clock. An obvious way to handle this would be to have an extra long delay (probably Bronstein delay in Europe) or increment. But ChessSpawn already answered the question about the time control.

As for a time scramble getting ugly, I thought my point was clear, but perhaps it wasn’t. If the players are short of time, there is an increased possibility of the positions on the two boards getting out of synch.

This pandemic has forced uncomfortable expedients on us in many areas of life, not just chess. The details are often interesting to observe and discuss.

I will be playing in an online tournament, by the way. There is to be an event on Chess.com on August 29th to raise money for the USCF, which seems like a good idea. 15-2 time control, which I don’t consider serious chess, but what the heck.

In two-board setups in blind tournaments, such as the U.S. Blind and the Blind World Championship, the procedure is this: Player A makes his move on his board, announces it to player B, and pushes his clock. Player B then makes A’s move on his own board.

In practice, discrepancies and errors can arise. Player B makes A’s move incorrectly. Or B doesn’t hear it quite right (or hears one move and thinks another). In the blind tournaments where I have volunteered, someone is watching over each board checking for stuff like that. It can be important to catch that kind of stuff early. These guys are blind, after all In something like the Irish Championship, where the players can catch each other making mistakes, mistakes are not quite so important.

As you have observed, the time you spend making the other guy’s move on your board takes away from your thinking time. So instead of getting X hours for the game, you get X hours minus Y minutes. Presumably not a big deal.

Time scrambles also become messier. But, having seen, and been in, time scrambles in chess games on one board, I have seen pieces landing on the wrong square, pieces flying through the air, clocks knocked over or moved across the table, etc. The way to avoid this is to not get in a time scramble.

Your point about “serious” chess is well taken. I have dabbled in online 15-minute, and I wouldn’t compare it with the “serious” games I have played over the years. But it’s a lot easier to go without serious chess, than to go without any chess at all.

[ChessSpawn]

@bruce_leverett

@Slivovitz

@bruce_leverett

@Slivovitz

With that clever two board and remote clock setup, what time control do they use to compensate for the extra time you would need to make your opponent’s moves on your own board? It would have to be an extra long delay, I should think. And how do they handle it if you do it incorrectly? I hate to imagine what a time scramble would be like.

Two-board setups have been used for decades for games involving blind players. Indeed, it takes longer to make a move. But what do you mean by “compensate”? You just have less time, that’s all.

Time scrambles are not pretty, and they aren’t pretty with one-board setups either. Generally speaking, time controls are nothing more than a necessary evil.

With two board setups for blind players, the blind player can have an assistant to make moves on the main board. The opponent of the blind player is not tasked with making both players moves on his own time.

I’m not criticizing the way this tournament was played (better than not playing at all) but simply noting practical problems. With the two board setup in the photo, after a player makes a move, he could wait for his opponent to duplicate it on the other board before punching the clock (unlikely), or the extra time to make that move comes off his opponent’s clock. An obvious way to handle this would be to have an extra long delay (probably Bronstein delay in Europe) or increment. But ChessSpawn already answered the question about the time control.

As for a time scramble getting ugly, I thought my point was clear, but perhaps it wasn’t. If the players are short of time, there is an increased possibility of the positions on the two boards getting out of synch.

This pandemic has forced uncomfortable expedients on us in many areas of life, not just chess. The details are often interesting to observe and discuss.

I will be playing in an online tournament, by the way. There is to be an event on Chess.com on August 29th to raise money for the USCF, which seems like a good idea. 15-2 time control, which I don’t consider serious chess, but what the heck.

In two-board setups in blind tournaments, such as the U.S. Blind and the Blind World Championship, the procedure is this: Player A makes his move on his board, announces it to player B, and pushes his clock. Player B then makes A’s move on his own board.

In practice, discrepancies and errors can arise. Player B makes A’s move incorrectly. Or B doesn’t hear it quite right (or hears one move and thinks another). In the blind tournaments where I have volunteered, someone is watching over each board checking for stuff like that. It can be important to catch that kind of stuff early. These guys are blind, after all In something like the Irish Championship, where the players can catch each other making mistakes, mistakes are not quite so important.

As you have observed, the time you spend making the other guy’s move on your board takes away from your thinking time. So instead of getting X hours for the game, you get X hours minus Y minutes. Presumably not a big deal.

Time scrambles also become messier. But, having seen, and been in, time scrambles in chess games on one board, I have seen pieces landing on the wrong square, pieces flying through the air, clocks knocked over or moved across the table, etc. The way to avoid this is to not get in a time scramble.

Your point about “serious” chess is well taken. I have dabbled in online 15-minute, and I wouldn’t compare it with the “serious” games I have played over the years. But it’s a lot easier to go without serious chess, than to go without any chess at all.

I agree that G-15 or G-15+10 as we just saw with Carlsen and Nakamura isn’t “serious” chess. Fun to watch and I wish I could play my long games with half of that ability, but not serious. I regularly play the monthly, one round per week G-60 tournament on ICC and that still doesn’t really give enough time for thinking, at least not for this aging brain.

I’ll be trying Bill Goitchberg’s Labor Day NYS Championship online. The games are G-90+10 which is getting into the realm of “real chess.”

[Drantos]

188 players competing in a Russian tournament, in Chelyabinsk, with plastic shields between the players. The shields have a cut-out window that allows players to move pieces on the board. Players sit at normal distance from their opponent but only about two feet from the next board, judging from photos.