"Online Regular: Total playing time for each player is 30 or more minutes (mm+ss ≥ 30).
Online Quick: Total playing time for each player is more than 10 and less than 30 minutes (10 <
mm+ss < 30).
Online Blitz: Total playing time for each player is from 5 to 10 minutes inclusive (5 ≤ mm+ss ≤ 10)."
For the over-the-board rating systems, the following restrictions also apply. The minimum base time for regular and quick must be at least 5 minutes and the minimum base time for blitz must be at least 3 minutes. Blitz events must also use the same time control for all rounds. I think it would be good to state in the new Chapter 10 if these restrictions apply to the online rating systems.
The “mm+ss” portion of the requirements in the proposed Chapter 10 for online events is identical to those already in place for OTB:
By contrast, the “mm-by-itself” portion of the requirements is missing entirely from proposed Chapter 10. For OTB, these are:
The real problem, however, is that these requirements are absurdly lenient, even for OTB. It allows ridiculous time controls like G/5 d/25 to be regular-rated. A few organizers have already taken advantage of this, and apparently some players have taken further advantage by simply allowing their clocks to run for 26 seconds before playing their first move, effectively eliminating the score-keeping requirement for the entire game because now their base time has dropped below 5 minutes (4:59).
IMHO the minimum base time should be 25 minutes regular, 8 minutes quick, and 3 minutes blitz, and these minima should apply to both OTB and online. To put it another way, the “ss” portion of “mm+ss” should be allowed to contribute no more than 5 seconds regular, 3 seconds quick, or 2 seconds blitz toward the total time requirement.
This is another silly rule. I could see applying it to round-robin events, whether regular, quick, or blitz, but then it should be in the round-robin section of the rulebook, not the time-control section.
The committee in charge of writing the proposed Chapter 10 has done a thorough job, and I can understand their desire to be specific about allowable time controls. In the long run, though, it would be best if all time-control rules were included in the general time-control section of the rules, along with a statement that “these rules apply to both OTB and online”.
There is one major difference between OTB and online ratings, and that is that dual ratings are not part of online ratings.
Perhaps manual scorekeeping should be eliminated for blitz events, and possibly for quick-rated events as well, but not for any events rated in the regular OTB or online ratings systems.
As to the odd mm+ss combinations, a rule saying that mm >= ss would probably eliminate most of the really extreme ones. G/30;+30 is not an unreasonable time control.
I am confused. Scorekeeping has never been required for Blitz or Quick events. I have seen players start to keep score in Quick, but usually abandon that idea as time ticks down.
I would rather keep that difference, rather than adding dual ratings to online, but my strongest preference would be to eliminate dual ratings entirely. That would restore agreement between OTB and online AND get rid of an idea that doesn’t seem to have worked as intended anyway.
Of course, manual scorekeeping is not required online, because online systems keep score for you, and even give you a printout (or electronic copy) of the scoresheet after the game.
Traditionally, manual scorekeeping has never been required in quick or blitz, but has always been required in regular except in time pressure (defined as under 5 minutes remaining main time combined with under 30 seconds increment or delay). I’m not sure how much of this actually made it through to the 7th edition, though. Some of it seems to have disappeared somewhere between the 5th and 6th editions, or between the 6th and 7th.
It would do half the job, yes. When delay was first introduced, the recommended (or default) delay was to be 5 seconds regular, 3 seconds quick, or 2 seconds blitz. It would make a lot of sense to re-institute these, in that no more than these amounts should be allowed to satisfy the ss part of the minimum mm+ss requirement for the event type (regular, quick, or blitz).
I agree, and it would still be ratable under my proposal, because it would still satisfy mm+ss>=30 and mm>=25.
Lotsa luck with that one. The committee that was formed to spell out the new online rules came out with a really good document (except for the omission you speak of), and they were desperate themselves, hoping it would pass with 85% approval at this year’s virtual Delegates meeting. That way, the new rules could become effective almost immediately rather than only after another year had passed. Most likely, there was no desire to introduce any further amendments at the virtual meeting, for fear such changes might jeopardize the 85% approval goal.
The proposal did pass by over 85%, and you could almost literally hear the collective and sudden sigh of relief throughout the EB, the rules committee, other committees, and on these forums. Small potatoes may just have to wait for another year, unless the EB or somebody in the office decides to attempt an “emergency clarification” or something.
Besides, the rule as it stands now for OTB isn’t the most intelligent, anyway. Instead of 5 minutes regular, 5 minutes quick, and 3 minutes blitz, the minima (for main time by itself, excluding increment/delay) really ought to be 25 minutes regular, 8 minutes quick, and 3 minutes blitz. See my earlier comments,http://www.uschess.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=346170#p346170, several posts upthread.
IMHO, there should be no scorekeeping requirements for OTB blitz or quick-only chess, and for online chess the online server should be required to keep score before it can be certified for use in US Chess rated events (most probably already do so, but it would be prudent to make that explicitly part of the rules.)
Unless specifically different in chapter 10 the rest if the rules still apply to rated online games. All chapter 10 does is make it clear there are rules for rated online play and show where those differ from OTB.
On the contrary, at least one organizer has run several G/5 d/25 events, and they are regular-rated because mm+ss>=30.
And at least one player in these events has figured out that all he has to do is let his clock run for 26 seconds before he plays his first move, then he is excused from keeping score for the entire game because his clock now reads 4:59.
Furthermore, since it is delay (non-cumulative addback) rather than increment (cumulative addback), this trick doesn’t even cost him 26 seconds. It costs him only 1 second, because he will have virtually the same amount of main time remaining as he would have if he had played his first move immediately.
So the minimum base time requirements of 5 for regular and quick and 3 for blitz and the requirement that all rounds in a blitz tournament must use the same time control do apply to the online rating systems?
Apparently. And Allen is high enough on the totem pole, I would think, so that his word in a case like this is likely to stick. Perhaps, Micah, you can rest easy now.
I think that Mr. Smythe is missing Mr. Doan’s point. Here is a hint. Exactly which online quick time controls must be avoided if an organizer doesn’t wish to require the players to keep score?
For that matter, which regular time controls must be avoided if an organizer doesn’t wish to require the players to keep score in an on-line event? And would a separate scoresheet be of any more use than what the on-line provider already has for both players?
Huh?? None of them. Or should I say, none of it. “Online quick” doesn’t require scorekeeping, because (a) it’s online, and (b) it’s quick. The only system that requires players to keep score is OTB regular.
A few organizers have already taken advantage of this, and apparently some players have taken further advantage by simply allowing their clocks to run for 26 seconds before playing their first move, effectively eliminating the score-keeping requirement