Various matters related to adjournments

[Alex Holowczak]

On Monday I captained a team in a reasonably important match where the final match score was 3.5-2.5 with a whooping four boards adjourned out of a ten board match. I wasn't playing myself but we'll certainly be biting our nails for a few weeks!

I've seen games in the BDCL this year that have been 1-1 (two draws) with four adjournments to go...

[Joey Stewart]

I found something interesting in the birmingham league. If you reach the adjournment time and neither player is especially keen to stop playing, they can just keep going and going - I remember having a game continue until nearly 11pm once when i had a decent attack and wanted to finish it out on the night rather then the possibility of facing some tough computer assisted defence. I kept getting 'suggestions' that I adjourn but I was pretty adamant not to have to travel back a second time.

[LozCooper]

On Monday I captained a team in a reasonably important match where the final match score was 3.5-2.5 with a whooping four boards adjourned out of a ten board match. I wasn't playing myself but we'll certainly be biting our nails for a few weeks!

I've seen games in the BDCL this year that have been 1-1 (two draws) with four adjournments to go...

We were 0.5-0.5 against Olton at the adjournment until our vice captain decided to cash in our good positions to agree a 3-3 draw

[Alex Holowczak]

I found something interesting in the birmingham league. If you reach the adjournment time and neither player is especially keen to stop playing, they can just keep going and going - I remember having a game continue until nearly 11pm once when i had a decent attack and wanted to finish it out on the night rather then the possibility of facing some tough computer assisted defence. I kept getting 'suggestions' that I adjourn but I was pretty adamant not to have to travel back a second time.

Yes, been there, got the T-shirt. I remember seeing one game go on until after 11pm - can't recall why I was still there - with one player about to add on the 15-minute quickplay finish. I assumed this was a standard around the country?

[Malcolm Clarke]

In the Southampton Chess League it is not officially written in the rules, but if after reaching the adjournment time they reach a position which can be resolved one way or another by playing for a bit longer, and it is possible to do so on the night, the majority of captains encourage this, and it helps to get more games finished on the night.

Usually to do this though you need to be playing at a venue that allows play after 10.15, and generally venues where there is a bar on the premises is more likely to allow this, as from my experience educational establishments, government or local authority buildings and church halls are more likely to shut earlier.

I see this partly because the issue of alcohol at chess matches has been debated on other threads. Twenty years ago we had two players in our team who liked their beer, and when they played at a venue without a bar bought their cans.

It never used to bother me when I played against the players mentioned, in internal tournament games, and one of these players played better at the start of the game than at the end of it as a result of this. The other player seemed better able to take alcohol in his stride, but we did have one match where he spilt his pint of beer onto a neighbouring board, and it took at least five minutes to clear up the mess (This happened 17 or 18 years ago).

[Roger de Coverly]

I assumed this was a standard around the country?

In the days when nearby leagues had adjudications and adjournments, it was important to agree a finishing time at the start of the session. Tournaments also had well defined playing sessions.

The Thames Valley rules still use the end of session decision point abandoned by other local leagues years earlier.

At the agreed stopping time, match captains shall call time. The clock shall not be stopped immediately; but a player whose turn it is to move (Player A) must follow one of the following two procedures:

Either: Player A seals a move, stops the clock and hands the envelope to his opponent who signs his name over the sealed flap of the envelope and hands it back to Player A.

Or: Player A stops the clock and suggests the game be adjudicated as it stands. His opponent either agrees (in which case the adjudication procedure of Rule 21 is followed) or indicates that he wishes to play on and restarts the clock. Player A must then seal a move as above.

Tournaments would schedule play from say 9.30 am to 1.30 pm with adjournments from 2.30 pm. It was not uncommon particularly when the practice of adjournment was being slowly replaced by qp finishes, that the arbiter would give players the option of sacrificing their lunch and continuing to play.