Strange Fault with DGT Clock

[David Pardoe]

"I did notice that Dave Pardoe mentioned they were playing with an increment, therefore they cannot stop notating"

I believe that if the increment is at least 30 seconds you have to continue recording each move.

I have reminded players in tournaments (with traditional time-controls), who have stopped recording, "You must record until you have less than 5 minutes left", and then they try to record when they have 5 seconds left. Players do get confused...

Kevin, See Ian Kingstons previous comments re the increment.

Some interesting points raised, but it doesnt really address the core issue.
We are playing to reach a certain number of moves by a times control.
It is simply not sensible therefore to use `time` as the key determining factor. It has got to be `Number of moves` that is the primary driver. Some very clear way of showing this, and enabling adjustments if necessary, seems to be needed before these clocks can be regarded as satisfactory, in my view.
The analogue clocks, although not perfect, give that essential check point.
For any number of reasons a player can misrecord his moves, including missing out moves.
It is therefore essential to the integrity of the process that, when the required moves are reached, the clocks are reset, and the due time credit added at that point.
This is the only way to ensure that players have definate confirmation that they have made the required moves, without actually having to find out by `losing on time`....which is completely stupid, in my view.
It is simply not acceptable, in my view, to allow this situation to stand. Players are always going to be left wondering if they`ve `missed something`, until a time control tells them `they have`, and they`ve lost...??
Totally bonkers.....
And its not helped by the variations of `clock programming`. For instance, my only previous digital clock experience was just a few weeks ago, and the clock did automatically reset at the first time control, as far as I recollect.
You must have a consistant process, and one that does not leave you trying to guess whether you are within limits or not.

[Alex Holowczak]

The only problem with digital clocks is the humans who use them aren't used to them yet. Once you know the clock doesn't add the time on until it gets to 0, there isn't a problem with them at all.

[Mike Gunn]

In response to David Pardoe:

1. There is nothing to stop players using digital clocks in exactly the same way they use mechanical clocks if they want to (resetting the time left when they reach a time control - use option 3 on the DGT or learn how to add time to the displayed time - it's not particularly difficult). Then the digital clock is just a more accurate version of the mechanical version. You only need to use a digital clock a couple of times to get used to how it operates/ what it displays.

2. The bottom line in all this is that it is the player's responsibility to count their moves to ensure they meet the time control. This is now (and always has been) the situation. To have a digital clock show a smiley face (for example) when you make the time control is not a change I personally would like to see.

3. One of the problems with having the didgital clock do it all for you is that button pushes don't always correspond to moves. For example many white players at the start of a game make their move and start black'c clock if black is not present (I know they shouldn't, but it is a common practice). If a player knocks over a piece while pressing the clock many opponents will restart his clock, etc. (I believe this was pointed out above or in another thread).

[David Sedgwick]

Many white players at the start of a game make their move and start black's clock......I know they shouldn't, but it is a common practice.

At the London Chess Classic, I had to ask Kramnik not to do something akin to that.

[Roger de Coverly]

To have a digital clock show a smiley face (for example) when you make the time control is not a change I personally would like to see.

It's not a smiley face (a waving flag on the latest DGTs), but the modes used with 30 second increment add the extra time at the clock press count. This is inconsistent with the approach used for zero and ten second increments.

Not adding the extra time with a ten second increment is particularly evil because the one thing you should train yourself to do when playing with an increment is always to stay ahead of zero. The only justification I can see for the difference in treatment between ten second and thirty second increments is that under thirty second increments, the scoresheet is presumed to always be up to date, so waiting for a flag to fall to establish the move count doesn't apply.