Clock accommodation for a disabled player?

[Joseph Conlon]

Looking for a bit of advice.

For an upcoming event I'm running I've been notified that one of the players will need to call out their moves and have someone else play them and press the clock. Assuming the opponent is willing, my default here would be to ask the opponent whether they are willing to play the moves on the board.

The question is about whether I should modify (or indeed whether I am allowed to modify) the clock increment to account for this.

The standard timings are 20+10. To account for the extra time of saying a move and then someone else moving the piece and pressing the clock, should I modify this to 20+15? Do I compensate the opponent with extra time as well?

I imagine there is a 'standard' approach to dealing with this, but its my first time in this situation so I would appreciate guidance from those with prior experience.

[Alex McFarlane]

I am assuming that the opponents will not be strong players.
in my (limited) experience a player can usually cope with the opponent calling out the moves but pressing the clock is often a nightmare. I've seen the situation where one clock press is missed and the next few moves are played on each other's time. This could have gone on longer but I finally worked out what was happening.
Even in standard play games an arbiter will make the moves when either player is in time trouble. With Rapid this ill be from near the start. I think that your only solution is to have someone make the moves and stop the clock.

[John Upham]

I think that your only solution is to have someone make the moves and stop the clock.

I recall acting as a "runner" in a 4NCL game from May 3rd 2009 between Chris Ross (Braille Chess Association) and Ken Norman (AMCA Dragons) when I was the manager of the various AMCA teams.

Chris is sight impaired and uses a touch board and a touch timer and Ken wears ear plugs and was unable to hear his opponents spoken moves.

Effectively I acted as Leo Colston from The Go Between making moves for both parties although they operated their own timers.

I can't say it was the most enjoyable experience but it was memorable.

Especially annoying was the time when I felt the need to do a Private Godfrey.

[Joseph Conlon]

Thanks for replies - a very kind volunteer has seen this post and offered to make the moves for the player.

[David Williams]

I've some experience of this in league chess. No problem until the occasion I got short of time, with no increments, when it became very difficult.

When I got to five minutes I stopped the clock, and said to him that having reached the point where I no longer had to record the moves, there was no way I could carry on making his moves, and I would have to try to find someone to do this for him. Fortunately one of his team-mates had finished his game, but it was still by no means satisfactory. He used his own clock, with hands that he could feel, but he would announce his move and press the clock. The pieces were still being moved in my time. On one occasion the helper made a different move to the one he announced. I corrected him, but wasn't sure whether I could or should claim an extra two minutes, so I didn't.

I did assume there must be rules that cover this sort of situation. Maybe not. I do think an (extra) five second increment would be fair for the opponent. And it may be uncharitable, but I don't think the disabled player should get it himself.

[Roger Lancaster]

Mildly interesting that, although the FIDE Laws contemplate blind and visually handicapped players at Appendix E, the Laws don't cover other forms of handicap which affect someone's ability to play chess in the 'normal' way, for example, if s/he is a wheelchair-user who cannot reach the board and/or clock.

[Stewart Reuben]

Article 12.2 f of the Laws states
take special measures in the interests of disabled players and those who need medical attention.
It has to be so general because there are so very many possibilities. e.g. some disabled players do NOT want to be treated differently.
e.g. I have come across a player who had no problem playing without increments, with the law that, when he had less than 5 minutes left, he did not need to keep score. But, when playing with increments of 30 seconds, he was required to keep score. and he found that mentally impossible to quote with.