Under FIDE rules, when playing with an increment time control you get the increment for move one. For example, for G/3;inc2 you start with 3:02, three minutes and two seconds, on your first move.
Some people, including at least one clock manufacturer, seem to believe you don’t get the increment for move one under US Chess rules. The US Chess rulebook doesn’t explicitly state if you do or not. However, US Chess rules consider, for example, G/30;d0 and G/25;inc5 to be equivalent based on the total playing time a player gets for a sixty move game. For G/25;inc5 to add up to a total playing time of 30 minutes based on a sixty move game, you must get the increment for move one. Based on this, I say you do get the increment for move one under US Chess rules.
I agree with Mr. Smith, but there are many who don’t. In practice I suspect that the base time is so much greater than the increment that it doesn’t matter much.
None, in all probability, it’s just that most such people just don’t want to think things through logically, and/or that in practice it makes little difference anyway.
Stubbornness born of ignorance is difficult to fight.
At least one of them avidly reads these forums, so I’ll let him speak for himself, but as I understand it his argument is that the increment is added back at the end of the move.
Precisely. The increment is added when the move is completed. I know a completed move is more of a concept under US rules, but the idea is the same.
And yes you can argue about think time based on the number of moves and argue you don’t get the full think time with the additional time at the end of the move.
In the end, as mentioned above, it doesn’t matter much.
US Chess rule 5B1b simply defines increment as added time. Based on this and the total playing time argument, it’s logical to argue that the increment should be added for move one.
Logically, the increment should be added at the same point regardless of which move it is.
If the increment isn’t added until the move is completed, then it wasn’t part of the thinking time allocated for the game up to that point. That makes no sense. If a game lasts 15 moves or 60, the total extra thinking time allocated should be the number of moves X the increment.
Let’s say a game at G/30 + 30 seconds increment lasts exactly 50 moves. Then the total thinking time per player should be 30 + 25 or 55 minutes. If one of the player completes the 50 moves in 54 minutes and 59 seconds, that player should not lose on time. But not adding the 30 seconds until after move 50 is complete means that player loses on time.
Doesn’t this depend upon how the clock is programmed? If the clock adds time at the beginning of the move, then Black presses White’s clock to start the game and White’s clock immediately adds the increment, so the clocks would be set to base time. If the clock adds at the end of the move, then (theoretically) you would have to add the increment to the base time at the start to give the right thinking time—not that it really matters in practice. (An ideal clock would have a choice). However, the correct clock design for the rulebook probably isn’t the best clock design for the players; add at end lets you see how much time you have to make the next move while you are not on move, which is when you would be most likely to actually look at the clock.
A similar argument could be made for Bronstein delay since it is also added after your move is complete on most clocks. However, you still get the delay time for move one as well under US Chess rules since the rulebook states the two forms of delay are equivalent and the only way they are equivalent is if you get the delay for move one with the Bronstein form of delay.
I think a mountain is being made out of a molehill. If 30 seconds one way or the other makes a significant difference in, say, a G/90 time control, then you have a time management problem, not a clock setting problem. For those who manage their time efficiently, 30 seconds out of 90 minutes is insignificant and irrelevant.
Looking at it from the start of the game, yes, it looks like an insignificant issue with proper time management. But how many of us have seen or played in games where there were just a few ticks left on one or both clocks at the end?
If you want it to show exactly how much time the player not yet on the move has left, then perhaps what the clock should say for both players at the start of a G/30;+30 time control is 30:30. That way the first 30 seconds is already added, and you can add another 30 seconds after move 1 is complete, etc.
Which is precisely what the DGT clocks do. Except that on the DGT North American you’d never notice it, because that clock displays only h:mm (no seconds) until it gets below 20 minutes.
If the time control were G/15;+30 instead of G/30;+30, the DGT would, indeed, show 15:30 at the start of the game. Blitz players are already aware of this phenomenon, because when you set the DGT to G/3;+2 it shows 3:02 (not just 3:00) at the start.
Adding before as most clocks do it is the best way. It is then equivalent to delay as well. Often you think of the increment being added after your move as it looks like it. You hit the clock after your move and then the increment is added. In reality it is adding the increment before your next move not after the previous one.
I agree that the starting time should have the first increment added.
As mentioned, DGT clocks do this automatically. This “feature” needs to be taken into consideration when replacing a clock in the middle of a game. You need to subtract the increment from the time you want the clocks to show. For example, if you want white’s clock to shows 5:20 and black’s clock to show 3:10. You have to set the clocks to 4:50 and 2:40 (if the increment is 30").
Mike Regan