I have a quick question that I could not find in the rule book. I was hoping some experienced TDs could help answer.
In the fourth round of a G/30 tournament, I was asked to help solve a problem. Two players were playing a game and black had 3 minutes and white had 10 minutes. I found this out after the dispute. The player with 3 minutes was up material and was playing very fast. So fast that he evidently knocked over his chronos clock several times.
Evidently in the scramble he erroneously reset the clock and both players had a full 25 minutes each with 5 sec delay. At this point, players did not know what should happen.
I have seen players lose because of this claim at other tournaments, but was unsure of the actual rule.
What is the right thing to do in this situation?
Do I reset the clock with the times the players agree too?
Does the player who reset the clock forfeit for tampering with the equipment?
Please help me out here for future reference. What would you guys do? TDs only please. No guesses, only actual credible answers.
16O (Defective Clock) is the closest I can find. Director’s best judgement on what times to put on each side. Consultation with the players is OK.
I would also say the director would be within his right to grant white two minutes due to black’s interference (apply 16C2, picking up the clock forbidden). I mean…it’s REALLY hard to knock over a Chronos (unlike a BHB) so the guy is a little overzealous especially with a 5s delay. However, a warning is likely more appropriate if it was clearly just getting excited. A forfeit is way too much unless black already multiple warnings over behavior.
Thanks for the quick reply. I was hoping there existed an actual rule and that some folks could give me some examples of how the rules have been applied.
(Crume posted his reply while I was writing this.)
I think these rules are relevant to the situation:
Assuming the players agree that before the clock was reset White had ten minutes and Black had three minutes, following rule 16P the clock should be set to show the correct time remaining for each player. Was the 5 second delay enabled before the clock was reset? If not the delay should be turned off (rule 5Fb).
The next question is whether Black should be penalized for knocking over the clock multiple times. I don’t think there is a rule which specifically imposes a penalty on a player who knocks over the clock, but there are some rules which might be invoked to penalize Black in this situation:
It’s a judgment call whether the director should impose a penalty in this situation. I wouldn’t impose a penalty unless White complained about Black’s behavior. Assuming Black was an experienced player and it was established (by Black’s admission or the testimony of impartial witnesses, or by the director’s observation) that Black had knocked over the clock several times and then had reset it, I would most likely impose a two minute penalty added to White’s remaining time, and warn Black that if he continued to knock over the clock I would impose a more severe penalty.
Given that this was G/30 I don’t think there is a rule that directly covers the situation where a player knocks over the clock. Rule 6b in the revised blitz rules says “If a player knocks over the clock a penalty may be assessed.” Blitz rule 18 says “Standard penalty for first offense is to add one minute to the opponent’s clock. There may be circumstances where a penalty assessed may not be standard (e.g. repeat offenses, unsporting behavior, etc…) and is left to the discretion of the tournament director.”
I disagree with Bob. As the owner of the Chronos clock had already knocked the clock over several times, I would not hesitate to assess the standard penalty and award the opponent two additional minutes.
Additionally, I find the claim that the Chronos was “accidentally” reset rather difficult to swallow. Except for the “quick reset” blitz modes (CH-F1 and CH-F3), resetting a Chronos clock requires four consecutive presses of the red center button. (This is not the same sequence as turning off the Chronos, which [of course] requires the player to hold the red center button while pressing either side button five consecutive times.)
You have described, IMHO, a very complicated situation. This is where gathering all available facts and using your best judgment comes into play. I am afraid there is no specific rule that conclusively tells a TD what to do here. Making things more difficult is that most TDs wouldn’t find out about this problem until after the dispute.
Here is a list of questions I would ask myself. I would analyze the answers prior to deciding what to do.
1.) Has this offender caused problems before?
2.) Has the opponent previously complained about this offender during this game?
3.) Are there any impartial observers? If yes, what did they see?
4.) What does the offender have to say in his own defense?
5.) How plausible is the offender’s story?
6.) Is it possible to determine what the clock should be set at?
Now, I would definitely apply some sort of penalty. The minimum would be two minutes added to the opponent’s clock, as permitted in Rule 1C2a. Depending on the answers to the above questions, I might go as far as loss of game, which my reading of Rule 1C2b places within my discretion as TD. However, I would only go that far if the answers to some of the above questions (especially question 1) were unfavorable to the offender.
In your particular situation, one troubling problem for me is the question of how one could possibly knock over a Chronos unintentionally. Either the original Chronos or the Chronos GX would be extremely difficult to knock over without grabbing the clock, which is definitely against the rules. Also, resetting a Chronos involves pressing the red center button multiple times. Even if one accepts that the offender knocked the clock over inadvertently, accepting the further claim that the reset was inadvertent would require a suspension of disbelief that I personally cannot manage.
I have seen Chronos clocks banged, dropped three feet to concrete floors, with damaged LCDs, with damaged buttons and with damaged bodies. However, I have never, ever seen one that was reset when it was dropped. The red center button is built level with the body, and sits under the two main clock buttons, so it is very hard to see how that button could be pressed accidentally.
One more thing - be sure to document this problem with the player in question, including anything you specifically told him about his behavior. If this happens again with him at one of your events, it will make it a lot easier to justify exercising Rule 1C2b.
I would encourage anyone who wants to improve his or her TD skills to read Boyd’s answer and to pay careful attention to how he approaches the situation and the questions he asks before making a decision. Based on my own (recent) experience, I would most strongly encourage anyone who intends to take either the ANTD or NTD certification exam to treat this as an excellent model of how to answer the exam questions.
Evidently, you have a “clock bashing monkey” to deal with. Was it his clock? Doesn’t matter. Do the best you can to reconstruct the actual time or as close as possible. Add two minutes to the time of the player who was more delicate with the clock. Inform the player who keeps knocking the clock over that if he does this again, he will be forfeited.
The Chronos clock is pretty much designed not to be tipped over or fiddled with to reset with just one push of the button. I have seen them freeze or go blank with exceptional bashing. Some other clocks, like the Game Timer, do the same if you hit them hard enough. In the stated instance, it sounds pretty fishy that a clock could reset to a convenient Game 25 d/5 setting. Maybe as an experiment you could offer to drop the offender’s clock to see if it resets. Ooh, I bet he would not like to see that happen and might fess up.
I’m half kidding about dropping the clock.
It doesn’t hurt though to start the procedures of investigation with a little humor to damp down the tension when an incidents occurs. Players appreciate when the TD is fair, firm in his conclusions, and does not allow the incident to become too personal. A TD is an arbiter not a Grand Inquisitor. Keep it as simple and as impartial as possible.
Might make a good math problem. “A Chronos clock dropped from a height 3.45 feet onto a concrete floor will bounce x feet. What information do you need to complete this problem? Create an equation to determine how high the clock will bounce. How often will the clock change to a new setting? What is the probability that the player will grab his clock before it hits the ground.” Turn your Blue Book in when you are finished with this question.
Once when I was playing a regularly-rated game I wanted to merely stop a Chronos Blitz (done successfully even though it was my first game with somebody using that flavor of a Chronos) and then when restarting it I inadvertantly did a double-touch and reset it (surprised the heck out of me because I thought it would be like a standard Chronos and take those four hits but fortunately we knew what the times should be). I guess I could see somebody picking up such a clock, realizing they had touched the center button in the process and stopped it, tried to restart it by hitting the center button again, and thus reset it.
In my experience it’s pretty common for serious games (G/60+ SD) to be played in blitz mode; it has happened to me as a TD and a player. Thankfully the players were paying attention to the clock times when things were reset in all situations.