Rules ADM: Special illegal move rules and inc/30

The current rules require that an illegal move must be corrected within two moves in (sudden death?) time pressure. This motion will change these rules not to apply if the time control includes an increment of at least 30 seconds. (The normal ten-move limit will apply instead.)

ADM: In rule 11D1, insert the text “, the time control does not include an increment of at least thirty seconds,” after “either player has fewer than five minutes in a sudden death time control”. In rule 16D, insert the text “and the time control does not include an increment of thirty seconds” following the words “time control”.

In non-ADM-speak, this means that rule 11D1 would now read:

Rule 16D would now read:

Good idea, but shouldn’t that be “thirty seconds or more”?

Absolutely. Thank you for catching that!

What about those tournaments that use a 10 second increment?? I think some G/60 use a 10 second increment. Do you want this rule to only to apply to events with a 30 second or more increment??

Larry S. Cohen

Who uses 10 second increment? I know that the CCA has used 10 second delay in many of its events over the last year.

Yes, this applies only to increment of at least thirty seconds per move. Compare this with the requirement to continue recording moves even with less than five minutes on the clock, for example.

Out of curiosity, does a “delay” of 30 seconds apply here or not? In 15C the recording of moves only mentions increment as well, so I’m guessing delay doesn’t apply there either.

Delay does not count for either this proposed change or for the requirement to record the moves of the game throughout. The key point is that delay never causes the player’s remaining time to increase, while increment may do so. Once the player is in time pressure in a sudden death time control with delay, the player will remain in time pressure until the end of the game.

It’s an excellent idea to make this rule parallel to the other one with respect to 30-second (or more) increment.

However, I think both of these rules should be changed to work the same way with a 30-second delay as with a 30-second increment. We should not have any rules which hair-split between increment and delay.

Bill Smythe

Bill, as Ken said though, a delay will still keep a player in time trouble, whereas an increment can get them out. That’s a significant difference, in my opinion, to NOT make the two the same.

The rule requiring players to continue keeping score, even under 5 minutes, when there is an increment of 30 seconds or more, should also apply when there is a delay of 30 seconds or more.

In fact, isn’t this the rule already?

Bill Smythe

No.

To be honest, I’m not sure that in 2008, when the rules were modified to accommodate increment time controls, anyone really thought seriously of the possibility of an organizer using a d/30 time control. However, there it is - the requirement to record the moves even with fewer than five minutes remaining is explicitly restricted to increment time controls.

Realistically the only time this would happen is if the game were played with a clock that was not capable of increment, but was capable of d/30. The TD is expecting everyone to notate continuously, but the players in this game are an unfortunate exception.

There are way too many variations in the capabilities of clocks out there.

And the USCF sells all of them.

This is incorrect. The United States Chess Federation sells no equipment. A third party vendor that has licensed the name “USCF Sales” (and over which the United States Chess Federation exerts no control whatsoever) sells clocks.

Privately, I still wonder why there is such a thing as “USCF Sales” in the first place. I’m sure it makes a bit of money for the federation, but is it worth it?