From: Patrick Davin LYRA VEGA OR JP> Date: 12 jul 1997 Subject: Re: Byo Yomi >Larry Kaufmann wrote : >>length is unpredictable. However, even better than byo yomi is time delay, >>in which each player gets a certain amount of free time per move, plus a >>fixed total time for reflection beyond the free time. This is actually the Matt Casters writes: >Is this the same as the Fisher system that was mentioned by >Kees Wiebering, or are there some differences ? If it is the >same it might be nice to try it out in a tournament. No, they are not the same. In the time delay system, as Larry Kaufman calls it, you cannot accumulate time by playing quickly. The system is used in pro events and works as follows: a common time control is 6 hours per player per game, as in the Jun'i-sen. Say you play your first move in 3 minutes 30 seconds. The time used is rounded down to the nearest minute, so you are now down to 5 hours 57 minutes. Once you have used 5 hours 59 minutes in this manner, the seconds are read off to you by a timekeeper with a stopwatch. Thus, byoyomi, which translates literally to "seconds-reading". You are not allowed to use the last minute. This system is much better than sudden death, and works well if what you have is a time-keeper with a stopwatch. But compared to the Fischer clock, it seems to me to be an arcane kludge. Consider: the difference between 60 seconds and 119 seconds is zero, but the difference between 119 seconds and 120 seconds is 1 full minute. Also, once you reach byoyomi, since there is no reward for playing your move quickly, every move no matter how easy or difficult takes around 55 seconds. In this age of electronic clocks, the Fischer system seems much more sensible. Note that the standard chess procedure of x number of moves in y minutes does not work if the players themselves are not keeping track of the number of moves played.