From a T.D. perspective, it seems to me there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the newly-launched blitz rating system. I haven’t followed the evolution of this topic on this forum, so perhaps these questions have been discussed elsewhere. But I haven’t been able to find the answers searching around the USCF websites, and they were not answered in the email announcement launching blitz chess ratings that was sent out a few days ago. Let me ask a few questions here, and besides answering them responders might also like to bring up any other questions they have.
1) How much is the cost to rate blitz games? It seems assumed that the cost will be the same as rating any other type of time control, but I don’t see what that is obvious. The cost to USCF of processing the information is the same, yes. But (a) the value to the “customer” isn’t necessarily the same, (since the “cost per playing time” would be way higher in blitz), and, (b) more importantly, I would think that the USCF would want to promote its new blitz system by offering discounted rating fees, at least during an introductory period, to help get TDs and players to experiment with blitz rated tournaments. After all, at many clubs blitz play is free to the players, even when there is a tournament. Now USCF is asking for some such tournaments to be rated at the cost of $0.25 per game. Where I’m from, a typical blitz tournament might either be a big round robin or a 5-round double-swiss. That’s 10 games or more, $2.50 per player. Fairly steep price. At that price I think most clubs won’t rate their blitz games except for perhaps an occasional "official’ or “serious” blitz tournament which might have an entry fee. If this is true, the number of blitz tournaments might be relatively limited. A cheaper rating fee might help spread the new program faster. Anyway… whatever the thinking is behind it, the information doesn’t seem to have been stated anywhere that I can find.
2) Shouldn’t the USCF ‘recommend’ that blitz time controls have some delay/increment? It is nice that the new system allows the TD flexibility for the time control he chooses. But the idea of a standard being a 5/0 time control (no increment) rather than 3/2 or 5/2 is troubling. Any “serious” blitz tournament with time control that has no increment is just asking to have a time scramble fiasco and the resulting arguments. I know the rules attempt to cover scramble situations by, for example, requiring a player to replace knocked-over pieces before punching the clock. But in a situation where both players have just seconds left and no increment, such niceties are inevitably going to go by the wayside. It will be a mess if there are multiple technical violations happening and even if the TD is there watching the game (not always the case) it will still be very tough to sort it out. I wrote an article a few years ago for CLO about the differences of opinions many experienced TDs have about the details of the move sequence in time scrambles; i.e., whether a player can start their move before the opponent has punched the clock or not. In a heated time scramble this will usually devolve into a mess – UNLESS the situation is tempered by there being a few seconds of delay/increment to soften the pace. Increments like that are used by FIDE at the big blitz championships, and for good reason. Shouldn’t the USCF system at least recommend that? If not, shouldn’t the blitz rules offer a lot more guidance about scrambles than they do?
3) The new Blitz Rules need some explaining, don’t they? I think that Mike Atkins was behind these rules and he has great experience in serious blitz events dating back to WBCA days, and so I’m sure they are well thought out. But any TD wanting to have a blitz tourney at his local club is going to have to explain these new rules to his players who may be unfamiliar with them, or confused by the contradictions with regular rated chess. And there are going to be a lot of surprises and bewildered looks on their faces! “What?? You can switch your king and queen? You can take the opponent’s king?” etc. Not everyone is used to playing blitz like this, and i daresay there will be a lot of confusion.
To name a couple examples:
“3.) Before play begins, both players should inspect the position of the pieces and the setting of the clock, since once each side has completed a move the position on the board and the time on the clock remain as set.
3a) If the king and queen are set up incorrectly, it is legal to castle short on the queenside and long on the kingside.”
Hmmmm. What???
First of all, I’ve never heard of such a rule. What is the reason behind it? Is it necessary?
Many questions arise. What if I set up with my K on f1, can I castle then? Why not?
Of course, I know many players who will try to take advantage of this rule to skew the game, deliberately setting up the K/Q wrong in an attempt to confuse their opponent.
But i do like this rule! Why? Because it allows us to easily rate FISCHER-RANDOM blitz games! Just have the players set up the pieces any way you want. Once they’ve made a move, it doesn’t matter.
(2) There is another blitz rule that says that a move is determined when the hand releases the piece (as usual) – except in blitz if the move is an illegal move it is not determined until the clock is punched. Punch the clock after an illegal move and the opponent can claim a win. But make an illegal move and realize it before you punch the clock and you can take it back. Okay, I understand the reason why they want this rule, but it is potentially very confusing and needs some explaining to players not used to such fine concepts. In the real world, if you make a move that leaves your king in check the opponent is going to chop your king off like a flash before your hand gets halfway to your clock, and especially if you are playing with no increment and there are only seconds left for each player (a highly likely possibility) and someone’s flag falls in here somewhere, the arguments will be huge. Can we have some explanation of how to handle these things? I can imagine some horrendous scenarios here, and players won’t necessarily know the right thing to do. Some explanation would help.
In general, the USCF seems to have a bad habit of launching new stuff without them being fully explained anywhere that is easily accessible to the players, if at all. Having such info only available in this forum or noted in the notes of a rule supplement document found somewhere on the USCF website is not good enough for the average player who doesn’t read these things, or doesn’t have time to track down that info. Even one who keeps well informed isn’t going to necessarily see it. I suggest that someone needs to write a big article about this in Chess Life, not only announcing that blitz ratings now exist, but talking to the players in detail about the new blitz rules and to the TDs about the new stuff they will have to know as well. If such article is already in the works, or has been written somewhere and I missed it, then I apologize in advance. But I haven’t seen it yet, and the system is already launched.
Thanks,
Tom Braunlich