What is the correct way to input different time controls per round in MUIR?
I tried (and got errors on)
Round 1: G/30;d10, Round 2: G/30;d10, Round 3: G/55;d10, Round 4: G/55;d10
G/30;d10 G/30;d10 G/55;d10 G/55;d10
G/30 d10; G/30 d10; G/55 d10; G/55 d10
G/30;d10,G/30;d10,G/55;d10, G/55;d10
I don’t think there’s a way to do that yet, so put in the slowest of the time controls used.
This will likely be the case for at least the next several months. From a ratings perspective, the only thing we need is the slowest of the time controls, since that’s what determines the ratings system used, but we may want to make sure people aren’t mixing blitz or quick-only rounds in with slower rounds, which is prohibited.
Is there a need for members to see the full list of time controls on a round-by-round or schedule basis? (The system doesn’t currently know which players in a merged event came from which schedules, that would have to be a change to the data structure and UI.)
For a 7-round event with 4-day schedule on time control of 40/80, SD/30; d30 ,
the 2-day schedule has the rounds 1-4 on time control of G/30;d10 .
is it actually possible/feasible to get rounds 1-4 of 2-schedule group rated as Dual-rated instead of Regular-only?
To explain the answer, I need to give a short history of time controls.
From the 1950’s until around 1991, US Chess had just one OTB ratings system. The fastest allowed time control in the 50’s and early 60’s was probably something like 40 moves in 1 hour.
When I first started playing in the mid 60’s, I think 30/30 chess was just beginning and that became the fastest time control allowed. (Sudden death didn’t exist yet.)
When sudden death and quick events (faster than Game/30) came in, a section could either be regular rated or quick rated, not both.
But by 2000 there were numerous complaints that quick ratings were often very different from regular ratings. Looking into the problem, the ratings committee concluded that there were not enough quick games being rated, and smaller numbers led to reliability issues and large variances between regular and quick ratings.
So in 2000 the concept of dual rating events was approved, for the express purpose of adding more games to the pool of quick rated games. I may be slightly off, but I think any games where the total time per player was between 30 and 60 minutes were part of the initial dual rated pool. As increment and delay clocks became more common, we started adding the minutes of time to the seconds of increment/delay, and MM+SS had to be between 30 and 65 to be dual rated.
Now, how does that history lesson affect your question?
Well, since the idea behind dual ratings was to increase the pool of quick-rated games by adding games that were slower than quick rated but not a LOT slower, sections where any rounds were slower than the cutoff for dual-rating became ineligible for dual rating.
So, the short (TL;DR) answer to your question is: No, there is no way to have some rounds dual rated and other rounds only regular rated.
I never learned how to do it in the old system until last September so I have always put in the slowest, except once. 
Of course, technically it is game data and that would be a lot of not so important info to save at that level – maybe just section metadata.
More than a few TDs decided all they felt like entering was the slowest time control used.
FIDE thinks merged schedules and round-specific time controls are crazy, too.
If people REALLY want to see that information, I suppose we could create a metadata field for each section to type in whatever you want for time control information separate from the ‘slowest round’ field used to determine the ratings system, but is that worth spending money on?
We use to run a non-rated G/30 Quads but if both players wanted to play 2 @ G/15 (half scored for prize) that would be their choice. A bit of a rating challenge.
hypothetically,
2-day schedule: 6SS G65 d5
1-day schedule: 3 rounds G15 d5, 3 rounds G65 d5
if two schedules merge at 4th round, is it possible to rate the tournament as a whole as regular control? even though G15 d5 is quick-only
Not as one section, quick-only and blitz rounds cannot be included in with dual or regular-only games.
All games in a dual or regular rated section must be G/30 (MM+SS) or longer.
You can rate the G/15;d5 games as a separate section, though, and combine them for prize purposes if you wish, just make sure everybody understands that some games will be QR only and others will be dual/regular rated, depending on what the slowest time control is.
Also, all games in a blitz event must be at the same time control.
The old system allowed you to enter multiple schedules and even allowed you to select which player was in which schedule. However, it did absolutely nothing with that information other than display the extra time controls on the rating report.
It was a real pain to enter all that, so I was happy to stop doing it. If, on the other hand, the system would rate the games according to the different time controls rather than simply by the slowest one, then there could be some value in going through the trouble of enter that info.
However, since it was a royal pain to do, I’m not pushing for this feature to be added. Its utility is suspect in any case.
I wouldn’t want to be the programmer writing that! It’s probably several hundred hours of work, database changes, changes to the data entry process, to the ratings process itself, to the crosstables, supplements, basically to any place such an event would show up.
And I doubt we’d see more than a handful of such events a year.
I can think of a lot better things to spend several man-months of programmer time on.
BTW, the old system did look at all those time controls to make sure blitz and quick-only games were not being included.
I didn’t say it would be easy. There are probably more events that would fit dual rating for the early rounds than you might think. Is it worth it? Highly doubtful. As I said, I’m not advocating for it.
What would the ultimate benefit be? Getting a few more games in quick rating? How many would really care? From what I can tell, quick ratings are barely looked at.
I agree with you on that, though I do know some people who run quick-only events who probably consider them more important.
I played 184* quick games in 2025 and 179 quick games in 2024. I played 42 regular games in 2025 and 45 regular games in 2024.
I know which rating I consider a more accurate reflection of my chess strength.
*According to current MUIR game stats, anyway.
Were any of those dual-rated?
5 in 2025 and 18 in 2024, as best as I can tell.
I reached 250 regular rated wins almost 10 years ago. I reached 250 quick rated wins a year and a half ago. I have never played in a dual rated tournament or a rated blitz tournament (I have run a lot though).