US Chess rules 15B and 15C

US Chess rules 15B and 15C state the following:

Both of these rules use the word “time pressure” in the title and mention increment but not delay. The rulebook defines time pressure as “a situation where either player has less than five minutes left in a time control and the time control does not include an increment or delay of 30 seconds or more.” We should either add that scorekeeping is required at all times if the time control includes a delay of at least 30 seconds or reword the titles of 15B and 15C to not include the term “time pressure”.

As a practical point, has there ever been a chess game with a delay of 30 seconds (or even close to it)? I have only ever seen numbers that big with increment. The largest delay I’ve ever seen is 10 seconds, and even that seems rare. In tournaments that I’ve attended, the delay has always been either 5 seconds or 6 seconds. Unless people start running d30 tournaments, these rules seem fine as is.

Yes. You can search for US Chess rated events that used a 30 second delay here: uschess.org/datapage/event-search.php. In addition, the Grand Chess Tour has used 30 second delay for all their classical time control tournaments the past few years.

One practical difference is that with increment you could go back over five minutes, which can’t happen with delay. The situation of not having to keep score and then needing to later in the game would be weird. Of course that could happen with a five second increment too.

That rule was copied from FIDE, which uses the word “increment” to describe either cumulative addback (which we in the USA call “increment”) or non-cumulative addback (“delay”). That could be how some of those minor inconsistencies crept into the U.S.Chess rules.

Bill Smythe

What I find weird is the part of Rule 15b that says both players can stop keeping score if either one is under 5 minutes (in the first of multiple time controls), but then, when they have made that time control, they’re not only supposed to start keeping score again, but they’re supposed to fill in the missing moves as well! I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do that if there were more than a few missing moves. My memory just isn’t that good.

ETA: I just realized that I somehow responded to the wrong post. What I wrote (above) makes no sense in the context of Bill Smythe’s post. It was intended as a response to the one above that (by “Mulfish”). Sorry about that.

The US Chess-FIDE rule differences document found here, uschess.org/images/stories/F … 20-rev.pdf, states that under US Chess rules you must record moves at all times if there is an increment or delay of at least 30 seconds but US Chess rules 15B and 15C (including the TD Tips) only mention increment so my question is whether recording moves at all times is required if there is a delay of at least 30 seconds.