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BGonline.org Forums
I LOVE Playing Until 2:15 AM And Then Being Required To Play Again at 10 AM Saturday
Posted By: Julia Hayward In Response To: I LOVE Playing Until 2:15 AM And Then Being Required To Play Again at 10 AM Saturday (Paul Weaver)
Date: Tuesday, 14 September 2010, at 12:27 p.m.
Having recently come back from a many-year absence to my first one-day tournament (having three kids tends to do that sort of thing to you :) ) - 6 rounds swiss, 7pt/1hour, finish by 6pm (*) I had the delight of watching the board next to me go 45 minutes over time in a 7-pointer, because of one player who simply didn't know the basics well enough to keep up. The TD tried to impose a clock at about 20 minutes over time, at which the player not at fault baulked and at least five minutes were wasted in pointless bickering. The second round went a similar way with the same player involved. For both rounds 2 and 3, the TD waited for all results before drawing the next, even though the offender was clearly sinking to the bottom and therefore irrelevant to the hopeful winners.
The end result was that lots of us sat around twiddling our thumbs a lot, lunch was an hour late, and the TD shortened the tournament by one round after four had been played - which denied me (in clear second place after five rounds) a shot at the leader in the final.
I used to be indifferent over clocks, but that experience convinced me they should be mandatory from the start. Even in fun tournaments, because slow play spoils the fun just as much as it upsets serious issues of money and prestige. It may be hard on the slow-pip-counters and the like, but I think that not only is fast thinking part of the game, but it's a greater reflection on one's skill to have the instinct to only do time-consuming calculations when they are pertinent.
(*) because the venue was booked for something else after that
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