The last time I posted to this forum, it was because of a question concerning a player’s right to time-delay. Now, I post concerning an even more eye-glaring issue.
The tournament directors for this year’s State Tournament are not permitting time-delay at their tournament(s) (for no good reason) but now, they intend to hold their Tournament at the local book store where we normally meet. We have always held blitz tournaments here every week just for kicks, but that changed in September.
A g/90 tournament was held there last month, and I questioned whether or not that this bookstore was a good place to hold a tournament. If there was a separate, silent room for this, there would not be any problems, but it was held in the middle of the store. This was where any noise-making spectator could come observe without notification. Also, there is always music over the intercom to make the store more relaxing to customers, but it is annoying if you dislike the said music and it interferes with how you think about the games being played.
Under Chapter 7 (I believe) there is the statements concerning player’s rights. The 7th right is the one in question:
7. That conditions such as lighting, space requirements, noise, etc., be at an acceptable level conducive to good competition.
It’s hard enough for me (personally) to play blitz chess in this bookstore, but I cannot imagine that there is any justifiable reason to allow a State Tournament to be played in the same setting. The chess players of my state deserve better than this. Normally, I would do something, but my college work is taking up too much of my time for me to deal with this situation. I may even skip this tournament altogether in protest, simply because the conditions are just too much for me to ignore.
All that being said, what can be done? This is just too much for me to stomach.
I would like to know the bidding process for the state, and the resources available to host such an event. If this is the only way to host the event, maybe others could get together to help defray the costs to move it to a more acceptable location. Or, maybe you could bid on the event for next year.
As far as noise levels, ask the organizer to provide earplugs to everyone. With the rates of good meeting space for tournaments going up, just finding a place to have a tournament is good. Be thankful you are even having a state championship. We have a monthly G/60 at Barnes and Noble (I started it a couple of years ago). We also have a weekly G/30 in the Meijer’s Deli. Both of these have a little more people around, but that is good for chess. Most people are pretty respectful. If a little outside noise distracts you that much, where headphones and listen to your own music, or as I opened… wear earplugs.
Vote with your entry fee.
They may get the message if no one shows up.
You might also file a complaint with the States Committee.
The only real answer is to get on the state board yourself, and to organize and find a site for next year.
I believe that my state (Northern California) does not allow time delay setting in its State Scholastic Championship. I believe that was the rule two ears ago and I am not aware of any change. I don’t think there was even an exception with the HS kids.
The rationals were that
Time delay was confusing to the kids and caused bad feelings and challenges.
Schoastic tournments are on a very tight time schedule and that ineptly set time-delay clocks cause round to run over.
Since we implemented time delay in our rated scholastic events challenges and time control problems have dropped by about 90% once the players got used to the idea (about two events was enough to get used to it).
Yes, there were many problems and much confusion in the first event. The vast majority went away in the second (coaches now used to it, and teach it), and by the third event completely dissappeared.
Does not make sense to me.
In serious adult play time delay could add up to 10 minutes per round. That is played on a looser schedule.
For scholastics we have found that time delay actually REDUCES round times. Some of the readers here will disagree, but that is my experience. Players are much more likely to agree to a draw in a “dead draw” (and even resign in a dead lost one) situation and not beat their clock to death trying to win on time.
However, tournament time management is important. If you believe that delay adds round times, you just have to add 10 minutes between rounds to you schedule (or subtract 5 minutes from your G/time control) to compensate. If you are really concerned about adding about 1/2 hour per day, instead of running G/60 set the time control at G/55. An easy thing to do.
However, I have found that unnecessary. Since time delay has been implemented, I have found that (for scholastics) adjusting either the schedule or the time control is unnecessary, and our rounds go up on time.
Both your arguements fail under practice, add to that the many advantages of using delay, and it far overshadows any other minor inconveniences.
I repeat… running sudden death time control events without delay is just plain stupid, and is against the rules.
You may circumvent the rules problem by announcing the variation in advance, but the rule is there for a purpose, is well tested, works, is widely accepted, and solves many more problems than it creates.
That rule was modified at the coaches meeting in 2007.
The old rule said that an analog clock was preferred for all games at the CalChess Scholastics. (Yes, it was advertised on the website and the flier.)
The issue was not so much time delay, but rather confusion by young players and their parents over the many settings on a digital clock. Considering the typical shortage of clocks at a 1200 player event with hundreds of beginners, the tournament staff didn’t want to have to be responsible for setting dozens of digital clocks each round or explaining how they work to the opponent. There were even a few cases of cheating where the opponent was not knowledgeable enough to notice it.
Players could still agree to use a digital clock, and as a matter of practice, most of the top boards in the Varsity sections were played on a Chronos clock.
As of 2008, analog clocks are still preferred in the K-6 (elementary) sections. However, the older kids now follow standard USCF rules.
In a K-3 U600 or K-6 U800 section, the benefits to the tournament in time scramble situations simply are negligible. How many games come down to one or both players under 2 minutes? How many of these players have ever heard of “insufficient losing chances” or even know when to make a proper claim. How many can play a legal game on a 5 second delay, not to mention make halfway decent moves?
On the other hand, questions about how to set the clock or how the clock works (typically from the opponent) are quite common. The USCF rule that prefers digital clocks creates more problems for beginners than it solves. Most novice players are familiar with analog clocks from their school chess club, but many have never seen a digital clock before.
Simply said, there’s a difference between serious tournament play by adults or experienced juniors and scholastic tournament play by young kids, most rated well under 1000. The new CalChess scholastic rules address this distinction.
Michael Aigner
P.S. Yes, you can always say “if you don’t know how to set your clock, you can’t use it.” That policy doesn’t work so well when the opponent doesn’t have a clock either.
I have my own opinion relative to K-6 event, that I will keep to myself as it is not appropriate for this discussion, and my opinion is definately in a quite small minority (maybe even a minority of one).
Actually, the discussion on whether or not to use delay for K-6 is a bit off topic as the original post was talking about a State Championship. My comments still hold for any REAL rated event.
The USCF Scholastic Committee has recommended to the Executive Board two weeks ago that 5 minutes be subtracted from the base time for a 5 second delay for SuperNationals. (See the BINFOs). Their rationale is to (A) keep delay-timed games closely aligned with analog-timed games; (B) setting the clock is really only an issue during the first round; and most importantly, (C) that specific guidance is in print so there is no confusion among parents and coaches.
In most (maybe all) scholastics done in the Chicago suburbs we have used delay with the K-8, K-5, K-3 and K-1 sections for many years now (there is one exception that I know of and the TLA and advertising state in advance that there is no delay). The main questions about delay are concerning clocks using an add-back delay, but those questions don’t occur that often.
If you are worried about delay in a scholastic tournament throwing your rounds off schedule then you could always go to an ASAP schedule (requires food on or near site). The parents of the younger kids are generally accepting of an uncertain schedule if their kids are in a G/30 five round section starting at 9 AM and the last trophy is awarded before 1 PM (a fixed schedule wouldn’t have had the last round even start until after 1 PM).
My example was a State Scholastic Championship. The K-6 open had about 10 players rated above 1600. The K-3 open had 4 players rated above 1500. That’s a REAL rated event in my book.
How many players do typical Chicago area scholastic events draw? Do you have clocks available for most games?
The big CalChess event discussed in this thread has 550 players in the K-3 and K-6 unrated or U500/U600 sections (and 1100+ total). Perhaps now you can see that the lack of available clocks becomes a serious issue. If the TDs have to run around setting digital clocks, then the problem becomes bigger. Simply put, analog clocks are easier to set, easier to monitor and easier to explain to a young player.
Ahhh, someone DOES agree with me (at least partially)/
Like I said, I do not want to go into K-6.
However, our scholastic events run 200 - 400 players (including K-6). State Elementary championship has about 450. We have no problems. Almost everyone uses delay (analog clocks excepted). I am not Chicago, but I am sure their big events are much larger than ours.
Our TDs do not, and will not set clocks.
We do NOT provide ANY clocks in ANY event, but we DO require each rated game have one. It is not a “serious issue”. If a school/team/individual wants to play in the “State Championship” they better well be prepared to play in it (with proper equipment, i.e. set, board and clock.) We don’t even have any problem with inner city events.
In scholastic events schools or clubs provide many clocks, (if not the player). Players/coaches/parents know how to set them. They get set correctly. No disputes or problems. Coaches teach the rules, and provide technical assistance where needed, then leave the playing hall to allow the player to play the game.
If a player is not capable of learning rated tournament chess rules, then he/she should not be PLAYING rated tournament chess. (oops, I let it slip… this is going to get me in trouble. Please do not comment on it, I have heard all the arguements.).
We provide unrated sections for beginners (clocks not required, but encouraged), regardless of age or grade. They can ‘practice’ with the clocks there, gain some experience in tournament conditions and other tournament rules (such as touch move, en-pessant, notation, etc) then “graduate” to rated play when they (player, coach or parent) feel they are ready. that system works very well (for us).
This has wandered far off topic, and I will refrain from more comments (if possible). You have seen my opinion, you know the rules. Case closed.
The increasing number of tournaments has resulted in a drop of average attendance. One-day K-8 tournaments that used to draw almost 500 have dropped to under 400 and other tournaments have dropped from the high 200s to the mid to low 200s. The K-8 state championship is still trending upwards and has recently bounced between the mid-600s and the low-800s. For many (most?) of the tournaments the sets are provided so that no time is lost by players having to set boards up at the start of a round. The upper boards of the K-3 sections generally have clocks, about half of the K-5 section and almost all of the K-8 section.
TDs do not set the clocks at the start of a game. Late running games that do not have clocks will have clocks placed on them when there are few such games (TDs do set those clocks). That mirrors what happens with clock-less games at Nationals (the percentage of such games is lower than at a local tournament but such games do still exist).