English Chess Forum

Forty years ago, a maximum time limit of 24 moves in the hour was virtually compulsory for competition chess even where the total playing time was only 75 minutes per player. This leads directly to adjudication at move 30 which is still with us in some places.

The question is, why was there a speed limit in the first place? Although it was part of`the then requirements for grading, I could presume that it predated the establishment of the grading system in the 1950's. Were players of that era such bunnies that they couldn't play either endings or quickly?

Adjudication isn't totally a sporting nonsense since cricket (now) has Duckworth-Lewis and boxing has "win on points" but why adjudicate at such a low number of moves?

I can recall 60 years ago after the war the great and the good of the day thought that 24/1 was too fast. In my teens I enjoyed 5-minute (on the rare occasions when we were allowed to use a clock for blitz) and the Saturday night 10 seconds a move tournaments for the Gambit Guinea (at the Gambit cafe in Budge Row near Cannon Street).
Then I received a copy of Chess or BCM where EGR Cordingley, the well-known chess writer, complained about 24/1 and wrote that 'now after the war we have some promising juniors in London. Do we want them playing proper chess or going down skittles alley?' I remember being irked that Cordingley should feel the right to dictate how fast I played, but he reflected influential opinion of the time, that 24/1 was a maximum ( it was 24/2.5 in the British and 36/2 at Hastings)and thus it took decades for faster time limits to become accepted as a result of weekend congresses.

Adjudication after 30 moves or less was a practical convenience or even necessity. Players couldn't easily reach the venue after work and a bite to eat before 7, while the caretaker (at any rate at St Bride's where London League matches were played) turned out the lights promptly at 10. Sealing and second sessions only became acceptable when the traditionally harsh 3-month winters of the 1940s and 1950s eased and transport lmproved.