Evening leagues -rates of play

[Richard Thursby]

According to their websites, the Middlesex league uses 15 seconds and the Thames Valley and Surrey leagues use 10 seconds. Middlesex starts with 60 or 75 minutes depending on the playing session length while TVL uses 65 or 80 respectively. Surrey appears to use 75 in all its competitions (I may have missed an exception to that somewhere).

The only time I remember closing time being a problem was in a county match a few years ago where white with king and queen was defending against king, queen and pawn on h2. It had been going on for quite a while with black unable to escape white's check when the captain of the home (and white) team indicated they would need to stop fairly soon and send the game for adjudication, at which point white promptly fell into the cross check queen exchange they had managed to avoid for so long, resulting in the match being drawn.

[Paul Habershon]

The Bedfordshire League seems happy with 35 moves in 70 minutes with 10 seconds increment, then 10 minutes added when the first clock reaches zero, still with 10 seconds increment. The 10 seconds seems just right for converting trivial wins and for preventing flagging. All clubs have digital clocks and at worst 3 hours 15 minutes playing time, more if they achieve the apparently difficult aim of starting punctually.

[J T Melsom]

Thanks for comments thus far. It seems there is rather more variety than I expected. I'm in charge in a non-playing capacity of the first match that will be held after any changes made at the AGM. I'd hoped I could anticipate the new rate of play that might be agreed and put the settings into the clocks in advance of the match at the club tomorrow night rather than on the match night. That might be premature. As we could be fielding a side with no experience of increments, I also need to brief on how they work, and requirements regarding notation etc, something which I'll probably need to repeat for visitors on Monday.

[Paul Cooksey]

I don't have much to add, except to echo Joey's endorsement of increments.

Single session time controls are extremely difficult to get used to, a lot of players will be unable to manage their time. So an increment will save a lot of trouble if you can solve any venue issues with the length playing sessions.

[J T Melsom]

I did get a sense that this season past involved me in far more games where time management was a more significant contributor to the outcome than other years. People were moving at speeds which would have failed to reach an intermediate time control. It is some time since I played 80 and 10 and possibly the quality of the opposition was lower, but for the most part I found games finishing earlier. I did observe the odd game where one player seemed to be taking an excess of time, almost as if he wanted the adrenalin kick of playing on the increment alone, but that was very much the exception. 60 minutes and 30 seconds seems to be neither here nor there, I've never had any problems with it, but haven't noticed any benefits either.

[Reg Clucas]

In Manchester we have settled on a 15 second increment

It seems that 60 + 15 is generally thought too fast but some have concerns about 80 + 15 overrunning

Stockport League also uses 80+15, SE Lancs Summer League 80+10. Never had any issues with sessions 'overrunning' in any of these leagues. They also have a rule that requires the home team to advise the away team if they don't have enough digital clocks, in which case the away team have the option to bring their own.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Calderdale Evening league has also moved to 1hr20mins +10sec, with Huddersfield likely to follow suit.

[James Toon]

G75 + 15 : Central London League, London League, London Public Service League, Guildford Chess Club Summer Tournament (Monday evenings), Pimlico Chess Club Summer Tournament (Thursday evenings)
G80 + 10 : Surrey Border League
G75 + 10 : Surrey League, Croydon & District League (in both cases alongside other options including adjournment and adjudication)
G60 + 30 : London League Summer Tournament (Thursday evenings)

The Central London League started with G80 + 10 then moved to G75 + 15 some years ago. It was thought that the extra 5 seconds of increment was worth more to players, certainly in the final stages of a game, than the loss of 5 minutes of game time overall. A proposal to make the same change in the Surrey Border League was put to this year's AGM but did not succeed.

[Roger de Coverly]

A proposal to make the same change in the Surrey Border League was put to this year's AGM but did not succeed.

Berkshire is 80 10 and Bucks followed suit. Once you have set up an increment on a DGT 2010 option 18, you don't want to have to change it whenever you play in a different league. A key worry at AGMs, anyway, is games overruning, that's slightly more likely at 75 15 than 80 10.

[NickFaulks]

G75 + 10 : Surrey League, Croydon & District League (in both cases alongside other options including adjournment and adjudication)

Starting this season, C&DL has moved to G75 + 10 for all games.

[James Toon]

[quote=A key worry at AGMs, anyway, is games overruning, that's slightly more likely at 75 15 than 80 10.
[/quote]

I understand this was a concern at the Surrey Border League AGM. In practice it's unlikely to be a problem. A game running to 100 moves would last only 7 minutes longer at G75 + 15.

[Mike Gunn]

During several years of controlling the Guildford club championship at a time control of 80+10 I recall one game seriously over-running 3 hours (by about 10 minutes). I told the players to agree a draw and they were happy to do so as they were just shuffling the pieces and neither was making any progress.

[Roger de Coverly]

I recall one game seriously over-running 3 hours (by about 10 minutes).

Ten minutes isn't very long really. Back in the days of adjudications or adjournments, you could spend at least that time trying to agree results, or waiting for a sealed move.

[Graham Borrowdale]

I recall one game seriously over-running 3 hours (by about 10 minutes).

Ten minutes isn't very long really. Back in the days of adjudications or adjournments, you could spend at least that time trying to agree results, or waiting for a sealed move.

It is if the caretaker is closing the building. Not sure how common that problem is nowadays, but there is the (possibly apocryphal) story of the game at Maidenhead continuing on the bonnet of one of the players cars. But they would have been fine, as the tables in the library sloped towards the h files.

[Roger de Coverly]

It is if the caretaker is closing the building. Not sure how common that problem is nowadays, but there is the (possibly apocryphal) story of the game at Maidenhead continuing on the bonnet of one of the players cars.

Closing time at the Maidenhead library was 10:30 pm. As games were scheduled to start at 7:30 and the move rate was 30 moves in 75 minutes, that usually left enough time to make a sealed move, Neil Cooper's game being the exception.

If it was a debate about the outcome of an unfinished game, that could be curtailed by agreeing to differ and "sending it up". I didn't like having my choice of opening dictated by the game possibily coming to a premature conclusion at move 30, so when playing at Maidenhead I would treat it as a two session game.