Let’s say the round began at 10am and the time control is G/30;d0. The first player arrives ten minutes late at 10:10am and correctly splits the elapsed time on the clock so both players start with 25 minutes on the clock. Under rule 13D, would the second player be forfeited for not showing up by 10:30am or would they not be forfeited until 10:35am (which is when their time on their clock would run out)?
13D means exactly what it says. The 13D1 variation (equipment must be set up - used by CCA and other organizers) is a variation (used by many but technically a variation). You must be cognizant of when the round actually began, not just when it was scheduled to begin (though if you do a rolling start common in some scholastic events to allow some games to begin early then you go by when the games could start even if one of the players is not there - with the same logic used in an ASAP schedule)
13D1 hasn’t quite reached the overwhelming acceptance over 13D that 11H1 (TD is a witness for illegal moves) has reached over 11H (TD intervenes to get illegal moves corrected in non-time pressure situations).
In tournaments with a high TD/player ratio I have explicitly announced that the standard version of 11H will be used instead of 11H1 (well, I described them rather than simply using the rule number). I wouldn’t see any need to announce 13D is being used instead of 13D1 and if 13D1 was being used I’d want it listed as part of the tournament rules (such as CCA does at its events).
Isn’t that the difference between the standard 13D (forfeit at 10:30) and 13D1 (forfeit when G/30 runs out)?
In practice 13D1 is easier to administer. In a large tournament, who is there to determine whether someone “arrived” at the chess board in time? The TD isn’t camping out at the board; the opponent is often wandering about.
My reading of rule 13D would suggest the answer is 10:30am but the TD tip after 13D makes it seem like the answer would be 10:35am since it says “A player who arrives at any time before the flag falls may play the game with whatever amount of time is left on the player’s clock.”
That’s what I infer from my reading of rules 13D and 13D1. However, the TD tip after rules 13D makes things confusing.
Micah, the TD Tip you are referring to was for the first player being on time and able to start the clock and even then it did explicitly say that in a G/30 time control a player arriving 31 minutes late would lose. The TD Tip for 13D1 addressed clocks being started with elapsed time split (as did the later rule about both players being late arrivals).
Perhaps the TD Tip could be made more clear by saying something along the following lines:
“TD TIP: For example, if the time control is G/30;d0 then a player who arrives at the chessboard at least 30 minutes after the start of the round loses. Note that the time remaining on the players clock is irrelevant here (unless variation 13D1 is used). For example, if both players are late and the first player arrives ten minutes after the start of the round, they would split the elapsed time and each player would start with 25 minutes. The second player would still forfeit if they don’t arrive before 30 minutes after the round has started, even though they would have 5 minutes remaining on their clock. In this example, if the player arrives before 30 minutes after the round has started, they may play the game with the amount of time that is left on their clock.”
Personally I’d be fine with removing every TD Tip from the rulebook and including them as part of a newly created separate TD Guideline book that could be freely downloaded from the US Chess website (with the same rule designation for each guideline).
The rules are written in a fairly straightforward manner and it is often different ways of parsing the TD Tips that result in confusion. Splitting them would make for a more compact rulebook while allowing for more reactive TD Tips when confusion does arise.
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FIDE seems to have the rules all by themselves and then the rules + TD tips together available in the arbiter’s manual, which is similar to your plan.
There may be some TD Tips (or parts thereof) that should be incorporated directly into the rules, with the rest becoming a separate guidance document.
And there are currently some “rules” that are really just tips.