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One More Post about Clocks

Posted By: adambulldog
Date: Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 6:52 a.m.

I thought my clock policy worked pretty well this past weekend but it was not without its detractors.

The only clocks I put on matches were in the Advanced flight. Most Open players were already using clocks of their own accord.

I clocked maybe 8 or 10 matches in the advanced. As a result nobody had to wait much more than an hour ( one guy had to wait maybe up to two hours) for a match all tournament. Last year we had a whole sector of the draw bogged down resulting in waits of five hours or maybe more.

However, two players (the first two I put on the clock) timed out. One was 85 years old (he doesn't look that old) and he later said that he wouldn't be back. I felt bad for him, but if you aren't going to apply the rules to everyone, why have them at all? He didn't have any apparent motor dysfunction or any other reason why he should need more time. He just wanted to play like it was chess.

The other guy had played in the limited JP the night before and had won two rounds. He was playing OK, but really slow. His match in the limited JP finished 1.5 hours after everybody else had left the room.

I sat down with him and told him that he would need to play faster the next day. I told him I might have to put him on the clock. He had played with a clock before in chess. He told me it was OK as long as I didn't clock his match in the limited JP. I said OK since the limited JP was no longer going to be an issue as far as keeping the schedule. I also told him could play in the novice division if he wanted to avoid the clock (he had never played in any tournament and had almost never played on a real board against a live person).

Nonetheless, the next day he entered the Advanced, I put him on the clock in the 1st or 2nd round and he clocked out and was pissed off.

OTOH, I had three or four Novice players ask me to put matches in their division on the clock. I just refused to do that altogether. I don't think novices should be put on the clock.

Messages In This Thread

• One More Post about Clocks
  adambulldog -- Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 6:52 a.m.
  • One More Post about Clocks
    Stick -- Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 8:03 a.m.
    • One More Post about Clocks
      jdg -- Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 4:21 p.m.
  • One More Post about Clocks
    Chuck Bower -- Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 4:06 p.m.
    • One More Post about Clocks
      Bill -- Thursday, 2 February 2012, at 10:15 p.m.
    • One More Post about Clocks
      Jason Lee -- Friday, 3 February 2012, at 11:18 p.m.
  • One More Post about Clocks
    neilkaz -- Friday, 3 February 2012, at 8:18 p.m.