I’ve updated my document that explains the differences in the OTB US Chess Regular and Blitz rules.
Thoughts on the current version?
2 Likes
How about you run it through a grammar/spell checker first? “Let’s go up the piece”???
Your introductory paragraph is laden with passive voice and hard to follow.
Do you find something wrong with the mm+ss description of the time control limits? You are telling someone to multiply the delay/increment by 60 and then…immediately divide by 60.
It could do with less editorializing if it is supposed to be describing the “rules”.
1 Like
I’ve fixed this mistake. Thank you for pointing it out. However, in the future it would be appreciated if you would be a litter nicer in the way you point out a mistake like this (of course given your history I highly suspect you won’t).
How so? How would you write it?
Simply saying you add the total minutes of base time with one move worth of increment/delay time in seconds seems weird to me. I was trying to show you add the total minutes of base time with the total minutes of increment/delay time a player would get if the game lasts 60 moves. How would you explain it?
Can you give an example? I don’t see anything wrong with having some notes explaining what the de facto rule is or when a variation is often used and some other notes explaining some things.
You asked for “any thoughts”? My two main thoughts are:
- It’s objectively poorly written. You may not like to hear that, but it’s true. Grammar/spell checkers are free. Use them.
- It’s not entirely clear what the point is and what the intended audience is, which probably helps explain part of #1. Offhand, it reads the author is trying to convince himself that he understands the rules rather than explaining them to someone else.
But the underlying situation is, that, whether you like it or not, to most players “blitz” means 5d0 clock-move. (For the record, and from a coach’s standpoint, I don’t like it—I think it breeds bad habits). If you see people in a skittles room playing blitz, that’s what they are likely to be playing. (5d0 is the first and default choice on Chronos and DGT and who knows how many other clocks).
The confusion about tournament blitz (to the players) is that it isn’t coffeehouse blitz. For someone who is used to clock-move; touch-move blitz can be hard. For someone who is used to black-with-queenside-play and an edge on time being a near-guaranteed win, a delay or increment time control requires a re-calibration of thinking patterns.
From the tournament director’s standpoint, most (all?) of the rule adjustments are to eliminate floor TD interventions to keep the tournament running on time. If one understands that, the rules tend to make sense.
And the blitz rules chapter in the US Chess rulebook is objectively written much worse than my document.
I would say more skittles blitz games are G/3;d0 rather than G/5;d0 (I know G/3;d0 doesn’t fall under the definition of blitz in US Chess or FIDE and isn’t ratable but most online platforms consider G/3;d0 to be blitz).
A lot of clocks simply put all the preset time controls without increment or delay first.
Your description in the PDF says absolutely nothing about 60 “moves”. You are (quite literally) telling someone to multiply by 60 then divide by 60.
mm+ss is the maximum time that a player can take for 60 moves. Period. I would hope that anyone north of 6th grade could figure out that ss seconds 60 times over is ss minutes. The last thing you want to do is to explain that mathematically without explaining why you are doing the math.
The MM+SS way of describing maximum player game time (for a 60 move single time control game) has been in use since 2013 and was discussed for several months before it was released, it is clear, comprehensive and well-understood by players.
Methinks you overestimate the membership’s understanding of simple, well documented items.
Not too long ago I discussed do a G/20;+10 instead of the G/25;d5 and someone who had been a club director in the past mentioned that it was a bad idea since it would only be quick rated.
There’s no such thing as a description that can’t be misinterpreted or distorted, but I think it is better to use the same description everywhere than to have two separate descriptions of the same thing.
We have organizers who believe that if they put ‘THIS EVENT IS BLITZ RATED’ in their TLA, it will be blitz rated regardless of the time control specified.
Draws by “triple occurrence of position”, “the 50-move rule”, and “insufficient material to continue” do exist in blitz, right? The first part of blitz rule 8 implies they do but then sub-rules 8a-8d state ways the game can end in draw but doesn’t state these draws.
What else do you think the first part of blitz rule 8 might mean other than including those draws, and how would you have written that?
8.) Defining a draw. Except as listed here, draw claims allowed under the regular rules are also allowed under the blitz rules.
That part is fine. The issue is sub-rules 8a to 8d.
How do you think they would have written the first part of 8 if they had wanted to not include those items as draws?
I understand that but why have sub rules 8a to 8d?
Sub rules 8c and 8d include changes to the standard rules, so are necessary to be in the blitz rules. 8a and 8b I think didn’t need to be there, but as the two most basic draw options may have been included in a failed attempt at clarification.
8c applies to the regular rules as well.
Not in the same way. A director may declare a draw under those circumstances, but the game is not automatically drawn.
I think it’s simply poor wording in the blitz rules.
Asked (by you) and answered:
The executive summary is yes, but it’s logistically difficult (if not well-nigh impossible) to verify a 50 move rule claim (or provide assistance for a future claim).
With a d0 time control, someone will eventually flag so the 50 move rule isn’t as important. With a d2 or +2 time control, that’s no longer a certainty. If a game where a 50 move draw seems inevitable (if it were possible to count moves) a TD might have to 1A a draw adjudication to preven an interminable game from wrecking the schedule (based upon the logic behind the 75 move rule).