From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 6 sep 2000
Subject: Re: Time limits

At 03:51 PM 9/6/00 +0200, DANERUD MARTIN wrote:

>Your information that "increment time" indeed could be used for rating
games in the USA is very interesting! Is it
>the same in Europe?

     Even in chess in the U.S., there is still discussion going on as to
whether increment (as contrasted to delay) is currently approved for rated
play or whether a separate ruling is needed.  So I suppose that for FESA
someone should clarify the point; logically increment should be ratable,
but depending on how your rules are written a legally-minded person might
have an objection.

What do you think would be a suitable time for shogi games with
approximately the same total
>playing time as for 1 hour + 30 s byo-yomi?

    My proposal would be 15 min + 1 min increment, which would result in
>(15 + 50) x 2 minutes = 130 minutes for a 50 moves (100 "Japanese" moves)
game. In the organiser nightmare
>game with (15 + 80) x 2 minutes = 190 minutes for an 80 moves (160) game,
that would result in just a small
>delay from a three hours per round schedule.

     The same game at 1 hour + 30s would probably last about 140 minutes,
so this is a huge difference.  The schedule you use is irrelevant to the
comparison.  So I would say your proposal is too slow.
     In my opinion the increment does not need to be so much, because some
moves are obvious which allows for more time on the hard moves.  So let's
try a 30" increment.  If our base time is 30', then after 60 moves each we
have used the same 1 hour as originally stipulated.  However the remaining
moves would take a bit more time, because some byoyomi moves are made in
less than the max. time.  So 30' + 30" increment would be slightly slower
than 1 hour + 30" byo, but much faster than your proposal.  However the
quality of game would be much higher than 1 hour + 30" byo, probably nearly
as high as 1 hour + 1 minute byoyomi.  So this is my recommendation for you.

>Sincerely yours,
>
>Dr. Martin Danerud
>
>President of the Swedish Shogi Federation, Vice President of FESA
>
>
     Regards, Larry